This Is Definitely A Move In The Right Direction To Maintain Public Confidence In The QR Scanning System.

This appeared last week:

NSW legislates to protect check in data from police

Joseph Brookes
Senior Reporter

15 November 2021

A government bill banning New South Wales police from accessing COVID-19 check in data is expected to become law this week, after passing the Upper House with bipartisan support and being endorsed by the state’s privacy watchdog.

It comes in the absence of a national approach and follows incidents of state police accessing the check in data for investigations not related to the pandemic.

Police have sought to access check in app data in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland, sparking warnings from experts about scope creep, privacy infringements, and the undermining of trust in public health.

Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory governments have now made it illegal for police to access the data collected by check-in apps. Victoria’s protection of check in data is included in the state’s new pandemic bill, which is set for debate this week and has been met with public protests about its wider powers.

The national privacy watchdog has called for a ban on police accessing the data, and the Australian Greens last month introduced a federal bill to prevent it Australia-wide, but it is yet to be debated.

New South Wales has relied on a health order to prevent police accessing check in data from the state government’s Service NSW app, which is used by 7.5 million people. But the New South Wales Privacy commissioner recommended the protections be enshrined in law.

“Given the likelihood of an on-going need for Service NSW to collect personal and health information in coming months and possibly into 2022, it is appropriate for the Government to legislate these measures to further enhance the privacy protections already in place in relation to the collection and use of this information,” the commissioner said.

On Wednesday New South Wales minister for customer service, and digital introduced the Service NSW (One-stop Access to Government Services) Amendment (COVID-19 Information Privacy) Bill 2021 to the Legislative Assembly.

More here:

https://www.innovationaus.com/nsw-legislates-to-protect-check-in-data-from-police/

This really should be part of a trend, in my view, where personally identifiable data in both the private and public sector, should only be used for the purpose it was collected and not just exploited willy-nilly for any thing that sees extra profit etc.

You would really think the Privacy Commissioners would be louder on this issue. Muzzled by vested interests I guess.

People are really getting sick and tired of this abuse and the controls on such activity should be much tighter I reckon!

David.