Welcoming reform following the Privacy Act Review

Australia’s privacy law was drafted before the internet, and well before the rise of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technologies. There are profound implications for our right to privacy, and this has created an urgent need to modernise Australia’s outdated privacy laws.

Today the Attorney-General Department released its Privacy Act Review. It refers positively to HTI’s Facial Recognition Model Law as a way of striking the right balance, endorsing, in principle, a risk assessment approach to regulating facial recognition and other biometric technologies.

We live in a world that is in many ways enhanced by new technology and its interaction with us and our data. But in the past year, Australians have become all too familiar with the risks and harms associated with the collection of sensitive information. The misuse and overuse of facial recognition technology in shops, schools and sporting stadiums, and a growing number of data hacks, show that these risks are very real and that reform is needed to address those risks more effectively. Often, the citizens who are most negatively impacted include older Australians, people with disabilities, children and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

There is an urgent need to increase legal safeguards to enhance citizen privacy, safety and fairness. The Privacy Act Review provides a roadmap to do just that. The report signals that the Government wants to strengthen the human rights protections of Australians and increase the accountability of organisations that are entrusted with our valuable personal information. Privacy reform, arising from this report, should always prioritise the needs of people.

In particular, the review acknowledges the need to strengthen legal guardrails for high-risk technologies like facial recognition and biometric technologies while ensuring that Australian can still enjoy the benefits generated by the digital world.

However, further reform to address the unique privacy and discrimination risks presented by facial verification, identification and analysis should be given the highest priority. We look forward to working with the Government in its consultation phase to implement additional protections based on HTI’s Facial Recognition Model Law.