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The federal government will unveil a raft of changes to Australia’s privacy laws designed to keep pace with new technologies including smart glasses and artificial intelligence.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland will on Monday release the draft legislation, which will also include new online safeguards for identity documents, called IDLock, and a right to have personal information destroyed by social media and search companies.
Smart glasses look like normal glasses but can also photograph or film what the user sees, potentially without the consent or knowledge of other people. The Greens are already proposing new laws that would ban the import of the glasses for the next 12 months because of privacy concerns.
The rise of AI, meanwhile, has seen tech companies shovel huge volumes of data into their systems to help “train” their AI models, with little regard for people’s privacy or copyright.
The law changes will include a right to erasure, so people can ask social media and search companies to have their personal information destroyed, rather than it being retained. The right to erasure will not apply to media organisations publishing news articles.
Rowland said Australians deserved to have control over how their personal identity information, such as their driver’s licence or passport, is used to verify their identity online.
“As data breaches, scams and cyber-enabled crime continue to evolve, Australia’s approach must evolve with them. With the launch of IDLock, our government is taking the next step towards a stronger, more robust identity verification framework that expands the focus from responding after identity credentials have been compromised, to enabling Australians to protect themselves before identity crime occurs,” she said.
“Whether their driver licence details have been exposed in a data breach or they are concerned about scams and identity theft, IDLock will give Australians an accessible and simple way to have greater visibility, control and confidence in how their identity documents are used.”
After an initial trial, IDLock will be added to Australians’ myGov accounts in 2027 and will allow people to block, unblock and monitor the use of their ID documents.
It will help people ensure they do not have their ID stolen or misused in scams and other identity crimes, while also allowing them to see whether their data has been subject to a data breach or hacking incident.
IDLock builds on the Credential Protection Register, created in 2022 by the government, which is supposed to stop compromised identity documents from being used to falsely establish an individual’s identity. The register has blocked over 830,000 fraudulent identity verification attempts since it was established.
After the release of the proposed new laws, the government will consult industry and look to introduce the laws into parliament by the end of 2026.
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James Massola is Chief Political Commentator. He has previously been National AffairsEditor and South-East Asia Correspondent, and has won Quill and Kennedy awards and is the 2026 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Connect securely on Signal @jamesmassola.01Connect via X or email.
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