Strengthening Enforcement and Redress Under the Australian Privacy Act

Abstract

The regulatory regime provided by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) has long been criticized for its limited effectiveness in providing both remedies for individuals and guidance and deterrence for entities obliged to comply with the statute. Key concerns include the restricted rights of redress for individuals, and the inadequate powers and funding of the federal privacy regulator, the Australian Information Commissioner. In the last three years, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has begun to take on an important role in advocating for reform of Australia’s privacy law, assessing the potential anticompetitive effects of the data practices of digital platforms, and actively litigating privacyrelated misleading conduct matters under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). This article describes the contrast in the roles, powers and funding of these two regulators and makes proposals for reform which would assist in providing Australians with appropriate access to justice in directly redressing privacy wrongs beyond organizations’ misleading representations about data practices. Australia, Data Privacy, Privacy Regulators, Enforcement, Redress