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Australia's regulatory environment has entered a somewhat irregular and opaque period in its cycle — the pre-federal election cycle. Agencies and departments have begun to pull back, withdraw and "sandbag" in preparation for the post-election phase — either business as usual under a returning government or a whole new agenda under a new government. One might assume this period could lead to inactivity, however, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner did not get that memo.
In recent days, Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd delivered remarks before the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee during the current round of Senate Estimates sessions. "Supported by our new organizational structure we are better positioned to operate as a contemporary and proactive regulator. Some of our recent initiatives and outcomes demonstrate our future direction," she said, noting the OAIC has "commenced preliminary inquiries into the privacy impacts of connected vehicles" and the "development of a Children's Online Privacy Code."
These initiatives, in particular, caught my attention as they both touch upon aspects of everyday life for the Australian population. It's a fair assumption that all automobiles manufactured are now — and have been for some time — connected, and how our children interact with an online world is a top concern for households.
Connected vehicles have essentially become extensions of the mobile devices that almost all drivers possess. It is intriguing that they are treated differently to our phones, tablets or computers when it comes to terms and conditions, privacy practices and consumer expectations.
I was presented with a similar circumstance in my own home recently. My television informed me it was due for a software upgrade, and that as part of that upgrade, the terms and conditions, privacy policy and use of information disclosures were all being updated and needed to be consented to in order for screen functionality and features to operate correctly and in full.
Buried among these disclosures and policies was the fact that everything I watched, streamed, browsed, interacted with and was exposed to was likely to be captured, recorded, shared internally, sent externally — including across borders — sold to third parties, and used to train unnamed large language models. These are but a few of my concerns.
Back to connected vehicles, personally, I'm torn between the absolute innovation and convenience of turning one's car into a moving communication and productivity tool and giving up the sanctity of it as the place of safety and privacy we've all come to expect — certainly according to Hollywood and the need to escape from the zombie apocalypse at any moment.
On a more serious note, the conversation around children's online safety is certainly a personal one and I'm again torn — between wanting my children to keep pace with the rapidly evolving online world and online economy, and wanting to protect them from harms, physical or virtual.
It will be interesting to follow the process as the children's code is drafted and how government, regulators and stakeholders balance the roles of parents against the roles of online entities.
Adam Ford is the managing director, Australia, New Zealand, for the IAPP.
This article originally appeared in the Asia-Pacific Dashboard Digest, a free weekly IAPP newsletter. Subscriptions to this and other IAPP newsletters can be found here.