Australia to consider European-style right to be forgotten privacy laws

The right to be forgotten and a right to sue for privacy breaches will be considered for the next tranche of Australian legislation, the attorney general has said.

Mark Dreyfus made the comments on Monday, promising to consider European-style privacy reforms after his bill increasing penalties for companies that fail to protect customer data passed in 2022.

The GDPR contains a range of other personal rights including the right to data portability; to object to data processing in some circumstances, including where it is used for direct marketing purposes; and not to be subject to automated decision-making and profiling.

But breach of privacy could prove more controversial for media companies which fear the action can provide the rich and powerful further legal weapons to constrain freedom of the press.

Dreyfus said that calls for a commissioner to protect whistleblowers would be considered by a discussion paper in the second stage of whistleblower reforms.