Privacy
Privacy is a fundamental human right recognised in international
and Australian law.
Article 17 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that:
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference
with his or her privacy, home or correspondence,
nor
to unlawful attacks upon his or her honour and reputation.
In Australia there are several privacy commissions set
up by governments to protect the privacy of citizens. They
include:
Complaints about breaches of National
Privacy Principles by the
federal government and big business can be made to the
Federal
Privacy Commissioner.
In January 2007, CCL made a submission to the Australian
Law Reform Commission's review of the Privacy Act. You can read
CCL's submission here.
Privacy topics
CCL has concerns about:
Privacy and the Access Card
CCL is opposed to the introduction of the proposed 'Access
Card' in as far as it amounts to a de-facto identification
card.
CCL's position is outlined in the following documents:
Privacy and the Internet
The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General released
a discussion paper in August 2005 about unauthorised
photographs on the internet. The discussion paper proposed
several new criminal offences, including taking photographs
in public under certain circumstances. CCL opposed new
criminal laws, but suggested that people should be able
to order that photographs of them should be removed from
the internet if they didn't want the photographs there.
Read CCL's
submission on Unauthorised Photographs on the Internet (October
2005).
Privacy and the Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Bureau
of Statistics (‘ABS’)
has been given wide powers under the Census and Statistics
Act 1905 (Cth) to gather statistical information.
The ABS is currently considering keeping more information
on citizens gathered from the census. This is called a
"statistical longitudinal dataset". CCL is opposed to this
unnecessary intrusion into the lives of citizens.
The statutory powers of the ABS are very wide indeed.
For example, it is an offence for an individual to refuse
to
answer
a survey
which compelled
them to disclose
personal
information
relating to their shopping activities unless they were
refusing to do so on religious grounds. The information
however would remain confidential and cannot be disclosed
unless it is already publicly available or the individual
gave the ABS permission to disclose the information.
Read
more...
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