Victorian Privacy Commissioner flags big privacy issues

Its annual report time again.

The Victorian Privacy Commissioner is the first off the block. The report prepared by the Commissioner, Paul Chadwick prior to his departure after 5 years in office, includes some salutary comments about privacy, described by Chadwick as the "quietest of our freedoms". For this reason he says "Ministers, Parliament, bureaucrats and media - all of whom have influence in the way the community is governed - need to listen for privacy with care".

The comments in the Commissioner's overview (page 3) about three major privacy challenges - the proposed Commonwealth Access Card, cameras that watch and "think" and genetic information - should alert all of us to the need to follow these issues closely.