Social media companies follow us wherever we go online (and occasionally offline), learning intimate details they can use to target advertising. Millions of Australians have been implicated in data breaches compromising passport details, health information or other sensitive communications held onto long past when was reasonable. And more companies are beginning to experiment with facial recognition technologies, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of their customers. Now, the federal government has committed to overhauling Australia’s privacy laws following the recommendations of a major review first initiated by the former administration.
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Government to overhaul privacy laws, including opting out of advertising, a right to be forgotten, and new rules for small businesses
The government has agreed to proposals that would allow Australians to opt out of targeted advertising, require search engines to “de-index” certain information about them, and draw small businesses into Australia’s privacy scheme.