The Australian COVIDSafe app and privacy: lessons for the future of Australian privacy regulation

This chapter provides a preliminary assessment of the Australian expe­rience with privacy regulation during the pandemic. It examines the Australian legislation enabling the introduction of the COVIDSafe app, before exploring the interac­tion between high levels of privacy protection and the generation of public trust. We argue that the need for specific rules dealing with COVIDSafe contact data has highlighted weaknesses in the Australia’s existing data protection framework under the Privacy Act. The chapter also considers the privacy issues arising from digital visitor registration at public venues for contact tracing and analyses the effect of recent public debates about privacy for the future of privacy regulation in Australia. In our view, the public discourse about data protection during the pandemic demonstrates that Australians attribute high value to their privacy, even in a time of crisis. The example of the COVIDSafe app illustrates that robust privacy protections are critical to achieving a strong community uptake of new data-driven technologies. We submit that Australian society would therefore benefit if the government gave better recognition to privacy interests, and their protec­tion, than it has done in the past.