The Business Council recognises the need to modernise Australia’s privacy framework, however, there are concerns the reforms are proceeding in a fractured way without proper cost-benefit analysis.
Business Council Chief Executive Bran Black said there should be protections around invasions of privacy, but there are concerns the changes are too broad.
“We understand the need to prevent serious invasions of privacy, but I do have concerns with the broad terms of the new statutory tort for invasion of privacy,” Mr Black said.
“The statutory tort was drafted by the Australian Law Reform Commission in 2014 and a lot has changed since then. So, we need to ensure any changes are appropriate and strike the right balance between safeguarding individuals’ right to privacy while supporting business growth.”
The current drafting of the statutory tort creates a cause of action for “misusing information” and the BCA believes this is a very broad concept.
The definition is not limited to “personal information” like the rest of the Privacy Act or even “private information” about a person.
The BCA is concerned there are no exemptions for employee records or small businesses, and no requirement for a plaintiff to prove they have suffered damage before commencing court action.
The BCA believes the statutory tort should be dealt with separately and that taking this approach will enable urgent and overdue reforms on doxxing to proceed.
