Personal data to get greater protection, but targeted ads will keep coming

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Australians are likely to gain new rights allowing them to demand tech companies erase data, sue for privacy invasions and avoid being targeted by companies using sensitive personal information.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has revealed Labor’s plan to enact sweeping changes to ban companies from marketing products to children and mandate transparency about the use of personal data by artificial intelligence tools.

Mark Dreyfus agrees that entities should be required to be more transparent.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The pledge to move towards a strict European-style data regime comes in response to a two-year review of the nation’s privacy laws.

However, the government has rejected recommendations to give people the unqualified right to opt out of personalised advertisements and to prevent political parties from targeting voters based on “sensitive information or traits”.

In a win for news organisations such as News Corp and Nine Entertainment (which owns this masthead), media outlets will continue to be exempt from the Privacy Act, a move media firms had warned would have curtailed press freedom.

“The government agrees that entities should be required to be more transparent about whether personal information will be used in automated decision-making, and give individuals a right to request how these decisions are made,” Dreyfus said in a statement.

He said the changes would build on laws passed last year boosting fines for companies that failed to protect consumer data after high-profile breaches at Optus and Medibank.

Of the 116 suggestions in the privacy review commissioned under the Morrison government, the government agreed and committed to 38, agreed in principle to 68 that it will work to turn into policy, and “noted” 10, which will not be enacted.

Many recommendations were backed “in principle”, reflecting the complexity of changes the government supports but wants more time to develop.

These include expanding the definition of “personal information” to include things such as IP addresses, the so-called “right to be erased” by data-collecting companies and the right to demand search engines remove certain items about an individual.

Search engines have not escaped the review’s scrutiny.Credit: istock

The rule to compel search engines would probably not allow an individual to remove public reporting on their past and would not remove content such as news articles. Rather, it would stop the news story from appearing on the search engine webpage.

Labor believes small businesses such as retailers or real estate agencies should be forced to comply with privacy rules, so the government has committed to working with business groups to minimise the financial burden of complying with new data requirements.

Political parties, like the media, are exempt. They will not be required to publish privacy policies and not target voters based on “sensitive information or traits” other than political opinions or memberships of certain organisations, a proposal that gave rise to a debate about freedom of political communication.

Labor also supports in principle a new statutory tort for serious privacy invasions, allowing people to launch legal action and seek compensation for non-trivial intrusions such as being filmed when they would have reasonably expected privacy.

The government also hopes to give Australians the ability to bring class actions.

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