Internet Society of Australia
A Chapter of the Internet Society
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INTERNET SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA NEWS RELEASE 2000/07 The Internet is for Everyone! 28 June, 2000 PRIVACY REPORT FAILS E-COMMERCE TEST Australia's new privacy legislation could still leave Australia out of world e-commerce markets following release of the House of Representatives Committee report this week, according to Mr Tony Hill, Executive Director of the Internet Society of Australia. 'The Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs recommendations have not directly addressed requirements for exporting to the European Union and there will remain significant loopholes even if their recommendations are adopted', Mr Hill said. 'The European Union has set strong privacy standards for companies that have been matched by countries such as New Zealand and Hong Kong. 'The United States has previously adopted a self regulatory approach, where companies could adopt their any standard of privacy protection, but there are moves by the Federal Trade Commission to strengthen this regime and the US is in negotiations with the EU to find a way of meeting their requirements.' Mr Hill called on the Federal Government to adopt a sound privacy protection regime that would also apply to the over-broad exemptions in the current legislation, so that Australia is not left behind in world e-commerce markets. The Committee's report recognises many of the difficulties with the current legislation but does not fix the key problems, including: - exemption for small business - exemption of exchange of information between multiple companies in a conglomerate - exemption for political parties - lack of enforcement powers for the Privacy Commissioner - different treatment of different industries - allowing unsolicited email (or spam) with an 'opt-out' provision - weak protection for information already collected In the last week, calls for adequate privacy protection have been supported by IBM through its Australian, Chief Executive, David Thodey. ISOC-AU supports the calls made by a number of privacy groups for strong legislation to support development of the Internet and the growth of e-commerce, including those for health related privacy issues to be dealt with separately. Contact: Mr Tony Hill, 0412 128 755, ed@isoc-au.org.au Mr Leni Mayo, 0418 377 937, media@isoc-au.org.au -- | Tony Hill Executive Director | | ed@isoc-au.org.au Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU) | | Tel +61 2 6257 5544 PO Box 152 | | Mobile 041 212 8755 Civic Square ACT 2608 Australia | | Fax +61 2 6262 9938 www.isoc-au.org.au | | The Internet is for Everyone! |