The challenge of regulating nationally in a global data sharing environment was a common theme in the keynote speeches delivered by Australia’s and New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioners at the 2019 IAPP ANZ Summit.
Compliance is not enough
· Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner — Angelene Falk, spoke of the trends and changes impacting the local landscape, noting that there is now a need to ensure the Privacy Act remains ‘fit for purpose’ into the next decade. She also pointed to the continuing ‘convergence of privacy principles and standards’ internationally, influenced by the GDPR and the need for a coordinated international response. Falk welcomed the Australian Government’s announcement of stronger regulation, which will introduce higher penalties, new infringement and notice powers, as well as special requirements in relation to social media and online platforms and the children’s privacy respectively. Click here for Privacy Commissioner Falk’s speech covering the OAIC’s Privacy 2020 strategy.
This is not enough
· Launching his speech on Addressing the Power Asymmetry of the Big Technology Companies, John Edwards, New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner asked this question: When a traditional UK media outlet publishes a story about a backpacker murdered in Auckland, and that story is Googled a lot globally, thus rising to prominence in search algorithms and being delivered to inboxes via a trends alert subscription service, thus breaching a New Zealand suppression order which would risk a fair trial and potentially deprive a victim’s family of the justice of a conviction, who is at fault? And what can be done within the world’s existing legal frameworks? In this rousing speech, Privacy Commissioner Edwards laid out the most difficult privacy challenges of the new digital economic order, calling ‘unequivocally’ for more regulation, spanning, for example, antitrust consumer rights, anti-competitive practices, privacy, and electoral integrity. Click here to read John Edwards’ speech.
Melanie Marks, InfoGovANZ Advisory Board Member
Principal, elevenM
