Buying things online is an easy way to shop. It's also an easy way for marketing companies and scammers to get access to your contact details so they can sell you more. Governments try to protect us from scammers but in doing so some people think the government is a threat and we are losing our privacy to increased security measures, and are always being watched.
What is the issue?
In Australia, our access to information is determined mainly by two laws. One is the federal Freedom of Information Act 1982, which gives us access to documents held by Commonwealth agencies. Under this law, agencies have 30 days to respond to information requests. But there is a fee involved and requests can be denied. In 2004, News Limited decided not to go ahead with an FOI request about violent incidents in Australian immigration detention centres after it was told that the fee would be $158, 672.03 (Briton, 2004).
The second relevant law is the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000. This gives individuals the right to access records about themselves held by private parties. Examples you may have heard of include access to sperm donor records held by clinics with IVF programs. In 2004, Victoria was the only Australian state with laws allowing children born from donor sperm to find out who their donors were (The 7.30 Report, 2004).
The 2004 Freedominfo.org
Global survey: freedom of information and access to government records around the world found that many countries had introduced laws "that allow individuals to access their own records held by government agencies and private organisations, specific statutes that give rights of access in certain areas such as health or the environment, and executive orders or codes of practices" (Freedominfo.org, 2004).
Who does it affect?
Article 19 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "everyone has the right to...seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers" (UN, 1998).
Many of us have learned to accept that authorities hold information on us, they keep their own records and we don't often exercise our rights to check on them. A lot of the time this is for our own good. But some of the time we deserve to know more. If we don't know what's going on we can't talk about it and so we can't change it.
In September 2005, then federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson threatened to take funding away from Victorian and South Australian schools if they refused to show a student's classroom ranking on their report card. Dr Nelson wanted parents to know how their students were performing compared with their classmates but state education departments argued that parents didn't need this information and that it would have a negative impact on children ranked at the bottom of their class. Dr Nelson later changed his mind and said it would be up to parents to request class-ranking information from their school. "The important thing is that parents should have access to these results," he said (Green, 2005).
Where is it happening?
The principle of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) is that freedom can only be protected in a democratic society if its citizens have unrestricted access to information and ideas (ALIA, 2005). Governments are starting to realise that people will trust them only if they are open and transparent in their decision making. Compared with other countries Australia provides pretty good access to information. In the 2004 Freedominfo.org Global Survey, it was found that over 50 countries (including Australia?) had adopted detailed FOI acts and over 30 more were trying to introduce these laws. The most recent progress was being made in South and Central America, Africa and Asia (Freedominfo.org, 2004).
Why is it happening?
Heightened security in response to the threat of terrorism has led to changes in Australia's FOI laws. In 2005, there was talk of introducing an Australia Card, a smart-chip identification card to help the government deal with border security and immigration problems. National Party leader Ian Sinclair said "once we have the health card in place, we can add Medicare details, tax file number, driver’s licence and police data, superannuation details [and] all aspects of social security" (APF, 2005). But do you really want all that info about you on one card that anyone can get their hands on?
Businesses want more information about us because if their marketers and advertisers know who we are and what we want it helps them to sell their products to us. Think, for example, what happens when you sign up for a bank account. They certainly need your contact details so they can let you know what's happening with your money. But what gives the bank the right to sell your name and address to other companies so they can send you junk mail?
We know it happens but we're not always sure how. It's got to the point where British supermarkets know more about their customers than the British government does (Williams, 2005). Loyalty programs, such as frequent flyer points, are used not only to give rewards to loyal customers but also to keep track of where customers are shopping and what they're buying.
There are also the problems caused by the internet - the information superhighway. A good thing about our legal system is that if you're to be trialled by jury, the jurors won’t hear anything in court about your past convictions. They can base their decision only on the evidence presented in court. But what's to stop the jurors going home and looking up your criminal record on the internet? Information online is available to everyone with internet access. This goes a long way to improving the free flow of information and communication around the world. But it can also make private information more public than some of us would like.
How do I know this?
ALIA,
Statement on free access to information,
http://www.alia.org.au/policies/free.access.html
Australian Privacy Foundation 2004,
Who's pulling the strings?,
http://www.privacy.org.au/Campaigns/ID_cards/QMR.h...
Briton, B 2004, The "war on terror" and the war on our right to know',
The Guardian, 11 February,
http://www.agitprop.org.au/nowar/20040211_briton_r...
Campaign for Freedom of Information,
http://www.cfoi.org.uk
Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) 2004,
Surf safe—protecting your details and security online, Stuff Magazine_.
Freedominfo.org,
http://www.freedominfo.org
Green, S 2005, 'State wins ground on school reports',
The Age, 1 September.
Hussey, G 2004, 'IVF babies want more info',
ABC 7:30 Report, 22 June,
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1137986.htm
Privacy International,
http://www.privacyinternational.org
United Nations,
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
Williams, J 2005,
50 Facts that should change the world, Icon Books, UK.
