Privacy

Liberty Victoria is essentially supportive of the reforms contained in the Bill. We note that there has been a significant expansion in the powers and activities of Australia’s national security and intelligence organisations over the past two decades, without a corresponding increase in review or scrutiny of such bodies.

The portal that has been created does meet many privacy standards. The entry point stores minimal information – once the identity (ID) has been established only a token certifying that level of ID is kept on the website. The department or instrumentality being accessed is told that the ID is correct and doesn't require re proof for later access, nor do they store ID information. Only those departments or instrumentalities that the consumer wishes to access are linked to their account.

In principle Liberty supports the Children Legislation Amendment (Information Sharing) Bill 2017. However, Liberty Victoria’s view is that the proposed regime goes too far and needs to be amended to ensure that the range of information that can be stored is clearly defined, that children have the opportunity to give consent wherever possible, and that there are clear rules about the types of people that are able to access the information.

Liberty Victoria had the opportunity to consider the detailed submission by Future Wise and respectfully endorsed it and its recommendations. 

The Federal Government and States have entered into an Inter-Government Agreement to set up a national database to hold driver's licence photographs and identity information. The database may be used to conduct surveillance using facial recognition technology at public places such as airports or sporting events. This is a significant erosion of our right to privacy. 

Liberty Victoria and the unmanned systems industry are seeking answers to such questions as: is it legal for a neighbour to fly a drone over your backyard? Can you stop someone filming you from above at the beach?  

To mark the Privacy Awareness Week 2015, Liberty Victoria and the Australian Association for Unmanned Systems (AAUS) have detailed plans for reform in order to resolve these questions and tackle growing concern about the right to privacy at a time of increased private drone use.