Tasmanian privacy laws to be reviewed by Tasmania Law Reform Institute

Tasmania’s privacy laws will go under the microscope after it was found ‘multiple gaps’ in legislation would put personal and government information at risk. DETAILS >

Tasmania’s privacy laws will be reviewed by the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute. Picture: iStock

Tasmania’s privacy laws will go under the microscope after it was found ‘multiple gaps’ in legislation would put personal and government information at risk.

The Tasmania Law Reform Institute (TLRI) will conduct a major review into the state’s legal protections surrounding privacy, with the community urged to have their voice heard as part of the review.

The Institute on Tuesday released an issues paper, as part of the public consultation for the review, which aims to inform discussion about how privacy can be protected.

The issues paper, Review of Privacy Laws in Tasmania, noted that the state’s privacy laws offered a “fragmented landscape of protections”.

“Currently, there is no comprehensive privacy regulation in Tasmania,” the paper stated.

“Rather, privacy protection is fragmented, across different laws that protect different types of privacy, in different specific circumstances.”

Members of the community are being urged to have their say as part of the review.

TLRI Director Professor Jeremy Prichard said those fragmented areas included laws that covered different types of privacy such as personal space and personal information.

Prof Prichard said non-government agencies were not covered under Tasmania’s Personal Information Protection Act (2004).

“ … And its not clear what rules apply when people voluntarily provide personal information to government agencies without being asked,” Prof Prichard said.

“Some of our laws were written two decades ago, so we need to examine how well they apply to new surveillance technologies, facial recognition systems, biometric data and so on.”

The Tasmanian government came under scrutiny in late March over its response to a data hack by Russian ransomware group Cl0P, in which government data was accessed.

The group breached third party data transfer service GoAnywhere, before releasing about 16,000 Department of Education, Children and Youth documents to the dark web.

And while the Tasmanian Government was added to the victims list on March 24, the threat to the public was only revealed to the community on March 31.

Nelson MLC Meg Webb referred the review to the TLRI in 2019.

Independent Member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council, Meg Webb, who referred the review to the TLRI in 2019 said the review was a “timely first step in plugging those gaps”.

“Clearly current laws are not fit for purpose when considering the rapidly evolving digital information and cyber landscape,” Ms Webb said.

“It is not just cyber attacks that raise concern, but also other digital innovations such as facial recognition technology, or even the recent Covid-19 check-in apps which raised serious concerns about personal data being misused by businesses or public authorities.”

TLRI Principal Research Fellow Dr Rebecca Bradfield said it was vital the community have their say before submissions to the TLRI issues paper close on July 11.

View the paper and submit via: https://bit.ly/44lbTpv

Originally published as Tasmanian privacy laws to be reviewed by Tasmania Law Reform Institute