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Protecting privacy in the digital ID age

Protecting privacy in the digital ID age

Managing citizens’ personal information is one of the government’s most important jobs. But as the federal government prepares to roll out a nationwide digital ID system, how can public servants and politicians strike the right balance between offering more personalised government services while securing the identifiable data of their citizens? What insights can we gain from other countries who have tried (and sometimes failed) to use technology to improve consumer access to government services? This special report examines the state of privacy rights in Australia as issues such as FOI abound and fresh digital ID legislation is being prepared for lift-off.  

Data inventories are effectively a ‘stock take’ of data. Of key interest in any data inventory is the personal information held by an organisation.
The Commonwealth’s freedom of information regime has been described as a dysfunctional, broken mess. But there are ways to repair it.
The potential positives of artificial intelligence and automated decision-making are numerous, but human design and oversight are necessities.
Scattered traces of personal information, along with the rise of artificial intelligence technologies, leaves people increasingly vulnerable to identity theft and data hacks.
Finland’s AuroraAI is perhaps the most ambitious government AI project that never quite made it over the starting line.
Big ransomware attacks have reset once opposing sides of political and industry debate.
Forensic IT experts, cybersecurity specialists, data practitioners, network architects, risk analysts – privacy is a team sport.
What might Australia’s digital ID scheme mean for privacy, social cohesion and civil liberties?
The Privacy Act definition of personal information is expanding, with an individual's 'attributes' becoming part of the process.
The Baltic nation of Estonia has a reputation for being the most advanced digital government in the world – and it’s had a digital ID…
So far, the security benefits of an Australia-governed system of digital identification have been clouded by allergy to a national ID.