Krystie Harman
Krystie Harman 18:53, 2 Sep 2004 (EST)
Privacy_and_New_Technologies
In Australia, the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 regulates all privacy issues including privacy in new media technologies. This Act was passed by Parliament in December 2000 and became effective on 21 December 2001 with some provisions not commencing until 21 December 2002.
The [http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/npps01.html
National Privacy Principles] from the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 gives government guidelines on the collection of information and its use and disclosure. The guidelines specify that organisations must not collect personal information unless that information is necessary, and must only collect personal information in a lawful way (Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, 2004). It also provides guidelines on how an organisation is able to use or disclose personal information about an individual. These guidelines are in place to protect an individual’s privacy while on the internet. The legislation provides the Federal Privacy Commissioner with the power to make guidelines about interpretation of the National Privacy Principles.
The Commissioner is empowered to investigate and resolve complaints against organisations that have not complied with the [http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/npps01.html
National Privacy Principles]. The Commissioner’s interpretation of the ambiguous aspects of the NPP’s will be crucial to the extent of protection of individuals’ privacy provided by the legislation (Electronic Frontiers Australia, 2004). The Act however, does not provide the opportunity for complainants to use a right of appeal against a determination of the Commissioner.
However, it is hard for governments to completely regulate internet privacy issues due to the anonymity of the internet, the vast array of websites and web users, and the international aspect of the internet.
Many organisations have been established as a result of the growing debate about privacy online. These include The Electronic Frontier Foundation (including Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc), Electronic Privacy Information Centre and Privacy International. These groups all focus their attention on emerging civil liberties issues and the protection of privacy. They also function as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations. This has especially become easier in America since the USA PATRIOT Act was established, which allows greater government surveillance of emails and phonecalls.
In the USA, the USA PATRIOT Act, enables greater government surveillance capabilities online. As a result, federal investigators are able to track emails and web site visits without obtaining a wire-tap order or subpoena. Investigators only need to inform a judge that the investigation is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation. This government regulation is invading citizen’s privacy by surveying emails and telephone calls of innocent citizens.
Government regulation needs to be in place for citizens to feel safe when using the internet. However, the internet is hard to regulate because of the anonymity of the web, the global nature of the web and the large amount of web sites and web users. Although government and privacy organisations can track privacy policies and their usage, full regulation of the internet is so far impossible.
===Bibliography===
Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2004. Retrieved 9 September, 2004, from http://www.eff.org
Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. 2004. Retrieved 9 September, 2004, from http://efa.org.au
Electronic Frontiers Australia (2004) “On-Line Privacy Issues�. Retrieved 26 October, 2004, from http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Privacy/privacy.html
Electronic Privacy Information Centre. 2004. Retrieved 9 September, 2004, from http://www.epic.org
The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner. 2004. National Privacy Principles (Extracted from the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000). Retrieved 9 September, 2004, http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/npps01.html
Krystie Harman 12:56, 26 Oct 2004 (EST)
Krystie Harman 17:36, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
