The ABC says it is “committed to protecting your privacy”. So why are they giving our data to Facebook and Google? The ABC Privacy Policy was updated in late 2021, to “reflect some changes to the way in which your information will be handled as we look to help Australians find more content likely to be of interest to them”. The changes include “disclosing hashed email addresses to Google and Facebook to show you promotions for ABC Content likely to be of interest to you on those platforms, unless you choose to opt out”. In other words, if you have an ABC Account (e.g. if you login to watch iview or use the ABC Listen app), you will be individually profiled and potentially targeted by Facebook or Google, based on information about you given to those companies by the ABC – unless you have first figured out this practice is going on and then activated your privacy settings to opt out. Read More

On 25 October 2021 the Australian government released a Discussion Paper crammed full of proposals to amend the national privacy law, as well as a Bill intended to progress certain reforms ahead of the rest. Here’s what you need to know, to help you prepare for what’s likely ahead, or to draft a submission in response to the proposals. Read More