Aussies 'want stronger privacy laws'

AAP / Vincent Morello | October 8 2006

AUSTRALIANS want their personal, financial and employment details better protected from telemarketing firms, but their health information more freely available to hospitals, a new privacy report reveals.

The first of three reports scrutinising who can collect private details and how that information is used was released today by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC).

The 600-page Review of Privacy issues paper includes an analysis of the Privacy Act, developed by the ALRC in 1983 and ratified by the Government in 1988.

“No one at the ALRC would have had a computer on their desk (then) - no email and no electronic surveillance - so they were talking about paper files and how people matched those paper files,” ALRC president David Weisbrot said.

“Just by surfing the web, you may reveal vast amounts of personal information, often without your knowledge - for example your health, education, credit history and sexual or political orientation,” Prof Weisbrot said.

He said this information could be matched with information in other databases to create comprehensive profiles of individuals.

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