This appeared last week:
Senate backs Greens motion for privacy laws based on GDPR
- 11 May 2018
- Written by Sam Varghese
The Australian Senate has reversed its position and backed a motion by the Greens calling for the adoption of more stringent privacy protections in line with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, acknowledging that it is world's best practice.
The EU legalisation is scheduled to take effect on 25 May and companies and institutions around the world are scrambling to be compliant with its stipulations.
Greens privacy spokesman Senator Jordon Steele-John said in a statement that the fact that privacy protections needed to be beefed up online was evidenced by the recent scandal over the leaking of Facebook data to the analytics firm Cambridge Analytica. The firm has now closed down but is believed to be operating under a different name.
Steele-John said: “Our privacy laws are woefully inadequate and the argument that Australians don’t care and are agreeing to sign away their privacy simply by engaging in online interactions is simply not good enough!"
…..
“In March, the Senate opposed my motion calling for amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 to ensure individuals have rights of access, erasure and transfer of their personal data online," Steele-John said.
“I am heartened that the Senate has now back-flipped on their earlier position and supported, in principle, a move towards the European standard of online privacy protection and current world best practice.
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The full article is here:
Similar coverage is found here:
Senate backs Greens push for GDPR-style data laws
By Justin Hendry on May 10, 2018 1:30PM
Supports Privacy Act review.
The Senate has backed a motion from Greens senator Jordon Steele-John to improve Australia’s privacy regulations and bring local laws up to the level of the European Union.
Steele-John today moved that the federal government strengthen the protections in the Privacy Act, which he said were “woefully inadequate”.
He called on the government to “consider the impact of Australia’s insufficient and outdated privacy laws”, looking at the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a model of “as a potential model for privacy protection”.
The GDPR will come into effect on May 25, and is one of the single biggest shake-up of privacy rules since 1995.
Steele-John first put the motion to the Senate in March, but it was opposed.
More here:
As I said in a blog a week or so ago I think the game is changing and fast!
The Senate changing its mind so quickly would seem to be evidence that…
There is a useful explanation of just what the GDPR is and what is requires for anyone doing business with the EU as well as its impact on European Citizens found here:
The impact on the US multinationals has already been huge with Facebook, Google etc. making many changes both for EU clients but for all.
There are all sorts of implications for Australia depending on how far the Government finally moves.
The rights of access to your data, to know how it is being used and the right to erasure of data will be hotly debated I am sure.
The main point is that change is coming and I suspect it will be faster than we all expect.
David.
This is great news. I am sure it will take a while to materialise into a revised Privacy Act but a positive step none the less.
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