[LINK] Privacy amendment Bill takes privacy backwards

[Graham Greenleaf]

Hi Linkers,

Concerning the Bill to amend the Privacy Act introduced by A-G Roxon yesterday:

>Parliament Sees Privacy Act Reforms
>
>COMPUTERWORLD reports that reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 have been 
>introduced to Parliament. The introduction comes six years after the 
>Australian Law Reform Commission began its inquiry. Changes include 
>increased regulation of personal information for marketing purposes; 
>extending privacy protections to unsolicited information; 
>restrictions on sending personal information overseas; improved 
>consumer access to their personal data, and additional protections 
>on e-health information, the report states. Changes to credit 
>reporting are also included in response to "changes to the way we 
>access finance" since the current provisions came into effect, said 
>Attorney General Nicola Roxon.
>
>http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/425389/privacy_act_changes_finally_introduced_parliament/
>
>[via iAPP list]

Unfortunately, the Bill is overall a backward step in privacy 
protection for Australia. Most of the 13 Australian Privacy 
Principles are weaker than in the current law. While some of the 
increased powers to the Privacy Commissioner are useful in theory, in 
reality they are of little use because the Commissioner has only made 
one enforceable decision in the last 6 years. The Bill does not give 
complainants the right to have a decision made. Also, many of the 
most valuable recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission 
are left out of this Bill.

The Australian Privacy Foundation has issued a press release urging 
Parliament to reject the Bill and to tell the government to develop a 
comprehensive, pro-privacy, Bill.  It is at 
http://www.privacy.org.au/Media//Media/MR_Privacy_Bill_120523.pdf

Regards,

Graham
-- 
Graham Greenleaf AM
Professor of Law & Information Systems, University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Web - http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~graham/  LSN - http://ssrn.com/author=57970

Co-Director, Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)
Asia-Pacific Editor, Privacy Laws & Business International Report (PLBIR)
Visiting Fellow, Meiji University, Tokyo (Sept-Dec 2012)

Mail: Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales - Room 224
UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052  Australia (UNSW CRICOS Provider No: 00098G)
E-mail: g.greenleaf at unsw.edu.au or graham at austlii.edu.au
Tel: +61 2 9385 2233 (UNSW) +61 2 9569 5310 (Home) Skype: g.greenleaf
(For locations, publications and biography, see above web pages)
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