Privacy laws are a win for the public, but a threat to bottom lines

While greater privacy presents as good news for the public, for business and particularly for the digital industry, it will bring a lot of heartache, cost and complexity.

This article by Revium Managing Director Adam Barty was first published in the Australian Financial Review - you can read the full article here.

At a digital conference in late 2019, I stood in front of a room filled with senior marketers from brands like L’Oreal, Medibank and Dulux and told them the party was about to be over.

The newly appointed communications minister, Paul Fletcher, had the digital industry in his sights. He was going to push through changes to the grossly out-of-date privacy laws and force the industry to either properly respect the privacy of those it was relentlessly targeting with “personalised” advertising, or face the prospect of crippling fines.

As it turns out, I may have been a little premature. But now, after a wait of more than three years and a raft of very high-profile data breaches that “no one saw coming”, we have the final Privacy Act Review Report from the attorney-general’s department.

While greater privacy presents as good news for the public, for business and particularly for the digital industry, it will bring a lot of heartache, cost and complexity.

The report recommends sweeping changes to Australia’s privacy laws to bring us more in line with the regulatory environment in Europe, after the introduction of ...

To read the full article please visit the AFR site by clicking here.