Australian Privacy Foundation's Election Challenge 2013:

Where Do the Parties Stand on the Main Privacy Issues?

The APF invites Parties and candidates participating in the 2013 Federal Election to make clear their positions on the following matters:

Privacy Processes

  1. Does your Party commit to requiring the conduct of Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) on all projects that have significant potential to negatively impact people's privacy?
  2. Does your Party commit to the creation of a privacy right of action within the first year of the new Parliament? See the APF Policy
  3. Does your Party commit to requiring every organisation to establish and maintain information security safeguards commensurate with the sensitivity of the data? See the APF Policy
  4. Does your Party commit to a mandatory notification scheme for data breaches? See the APF Policy
  5. Does your Party commit to ensuring that the Privacy Commissioner's decisions about complaints are subject to effective appeal to the judicial system?
  6. Does your Party commit to an independent Review of the performance of the Privacy Commissioner's functions?

    7. Privacy Protections – Against Unreasonable Government Activities

  7. Does your Party commit to the repeal of the many unnecessary and unjustified features of post-2001 counter-terrorism legislation? See the Submission by Advisory Panel-Member Prof. George Williams
  8. Does your Party commit to sustaining freedom from surveillance of people's online behaviour, communications and reading habits, by rejecting the recent proposals relating to 'data retention' and to the 'filtering' of Internet traffic?
  9. Does your Party commit to the withdrawal of the power of the Australian Bureau of Statistics to impose mandatory participation in ABS surveys? See the APF Advisory Statement
  10. Does your Party commit to the conduct of a meaningful evaluation of Body Scanners in Australian airports?

    11. Privacy Protections – Against Unreasonable Activities by Corporations

  11. What commitments is your Party making in relation to the regulation of privacy-intrusive behaviour by social media services such as Google and Facebook?
  12. Does your Party commit to the establishment of effective protections against abuses of privacy by the media? See the APF Policy

    13. Privacy Protections – Against Unreasonable Activities in All Sectors

  13. Does your Party commit to ensuring that all visual surveillance (such as CCTV, Automated Number Plate Recognition and through the use of drones) complies with the key principles of Justification, Proportionality, Transparency, Mitigating Measures, Controls and Audit? See the APF Policy
  14. Does your Party commit to implementation of Law Reform Commission recommendations in relation to substance abuse testing, within the first year of the new Parliament? See the APF Policy
  15. Does your Party commit to regulation of the use of biometrics, including genetic data? See the APF Policy Statements on Biometrics and Biometrics in the Workplace
  16. Does your Party commit to ensuring that clear and effective protections exist for all personal health care data? See the APF Policy
  17. Does your Party commit to preventing the export of personal data to data havens that provide less protection than Australia does?
  18. What commitments is your Party making in relation to the regulation of mobile device tracking? See the APF Policy