Thread by @Info_Aus

People interested in #myhealthrecord might also be interested in new legislation being introduced which will over-ride the Privacy Act to allow sharing of your administrative data datacommissioner.gov.au #Auspol

In case it isn't obvious, gov needs this new Act because the Privacy Act prevents them from joining all your administrative data into one big project using info you provided in the last census.

The reason no one knows about this is because data governance frameworks are apparently a boring topic the media doesn't want to talk about.

'administrative data' is all the data the gov creates when you do business with them eg your Centerlink file, ATO file, immigration file, health data, education data etc, etc, etc.

The only reason gov can do what they are doing with your health data right now is that there has been an exception to the Privacy Act for health data for purposes of research for some time. This exception is about to be expanded to all your other data.

The gov calls this creating 'cross portfolio data integration projects'. Right now ABS is doing this using name/address/DOB collected with the census as the key to join the datasets from different agencies.

The gov is about to introduce a whole new system for deciding what data should be made open or joined in these cross portfolio data integration projects and also new Accredited Data Authorities providing oversight for integrating the data.

There's more info at pmc.gov.au/resource-centr… - this is being run out of @pmc_gov_au

People might well wonder why the gov already collected your personal data & began creating these data integration projects without having the new Data Sharing & Release Act in place.

Privacy advocates call joining all your data together into one big project a panopticon.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon Consultants who ran the ABS focus groups to see what people thought of this referred to it as changing the census from a 'snapshot' of your life to a 'video'.

I wrote about it here rosiewilliams.com.au/2016/07/23/wha…

This is actually why people began the campaign to boycott the #CensusFail- this was long before the website went live and began failing. Which is not to say we weren't happy to see the site struggle the way it did- it kinda drove home the point we were all trying to make.

I might add to this that it has been illegal to use administrative data for 'research' or anything other than its original purpose which is for the gov to administer the service for which you supplied the data.

Using administrative data for a 'secondary' purpose such as research was forbidden [with the exception of health data] until around 2016 census time when this framework was changed to allow it in preparation to join all your administrative data into large research projects.

There's more about this in the submission I wrote to the Inquiry into the 2016 Census plus an example of what gov currently does with your health & census data rosiewilliams.com.au/submission/dat… #MyHealthRecord

I actually spoke to someone on the data taskforce at PM&C to ask them if they'd speak at an event I tried to organise to explain the new law to the public. I told them no one knew about it. They disagreed with me & said everyone they knew did- and they declined my event. 🤷‍♀️

Although from memory one of the reasons they gave was lack of available staff & funding.

One thing PM&C were clear about was that they didn't want me to show the available information I had- which was a timeline of the consideration & implementation of the new law to the public. #privacy #Auspol

Thank you to everyone who has shared my thread- I've been trying to get this message out for a year or so. I'm glad it's finally doing the rounds.

Thank you for reading and do continue to share it- this might be the only way people will find out that the gov is introducing a new law to over-ride the Privacy Act.

This has been an interesting week for me. Totally exhausted tonight however.

Also, if anyone wants to understand what their phone and internet metadata actually looks like to those who have access to it without a warrant, I have a project for that. rosiewilliams.com.au/snitch/five.php