cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/4017115
Related material, not all as optimistic as the ABC news article:
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
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.
Among the proposals the government has tentatively agreed to is also the idea that individuals should have the right to require an entity to delete or de-identify their personal information.
The government agrees in-principle that people should have that right, including being able to require search engines to de-index certain information about them, meaning it would not show in their results.
The government has flagged it will continue working on the reforms into next year, with fresh rounds of consultation to come for some of the most complex proposals, as well as likely transition periods for those affected.
The original article contains 785 words, the summary contains 168 words. Saved 79%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Sounds great, but knowing something about how screwed Australians are for privacy I’m sure there’s a caveat. Probably have to have a digital ID 100% verifiable human citizen before you can use it. Allow yourself to be AI tracked online and off 24/7 to get rid of some ads. If people did a bit of research you will find you can already do these things and more to increase your security and protect your own privacy. The governments don’t like that though. If it’s something like the EU’s GDPR with no caveats then it will be an improvement.
Good to see Chaney introduce a private members bill to remove the carve out for political parties.
But the outcome of that seems like a fait accompli in any parliament where Labor and the Coalition can combine for a majority.
Ads should be opt in. You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to make them go the hell away.
The OP is talking about ad tracking. The comment I replied to suggested ads should be entirely removed.
With any number of alternative business models.
It’s unfuriating that people actually believe ads can have some kind of positive impact by creating a revenue stream for content.
And how many of those alternative business models:
- Ensure open access to content to anyone, rather than just those with enough disposable income?
- Enable support for content at a variety of different consumption patterns, including (a) niche but dedicated audience, (b) large moderately engaged audience, and © very large drive-by audience (i.e., audience of people who might not expect to access content from you ever again, but show up for this one particular popular thing)?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for the option of other revenue streams. Paywalled content has the right to exist, and I pay for some of it myself very happily. So does donation-based content like Patreon and at least some Lemmy instances (including the one I’m on). But advertising works very well, and I have never seen someone suggest an alternative that could ever come close to replacing advertising in terms of the volume and variety of content that is currently available on the Internet.
I think everyone would be surprised how many people would opt in.
I installed a pihole and not being able to click on ads for 12 hours is the closest my wife has been to divorcing me.
About time, it should be seen as a liability to hold personal data you have no need for
That’s already illegal. Australian Privacy Principle #3 states:
an organisation, may only collect this information where it is reasonably necessary for the organisation’s functions or activities
In other words, they can’t collect it unless it is necessary to provide service they offer.
I have lived and breathed (and trained hundreds of people on) these privacy principles. Our privacy laws are already pretty good. Waaaaay better than the USA. But yeah, they’re due for a bit of modernisation.
You can read the current privacy principles here.
