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drwaus.bsky.social
Digital Rights Watch
@drwaus.bsky.social
2.6K followers 79 following 150 posts
We fight for human rights in the digital age.

www.digitalrightswatch.org.au
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drwaus.bsky.social
Not only is it concerning that unregulated AI use is being reported in the legal system, but also the privacy implications of feeding sensitive documents into a black box AI algorithm.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-03/legal-services-board-of-victoria-warns-lawyers-about-ai-in-court/105916628
November 3, 2025 at 4:17 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
We welcome the Albanese government ruling-out a text-and-data-mining exemption for Big Tech.

By itself, this decision is insufficient. The Government needs to recognise that all Australians are creative individuals who deserve protection, not just those who make a living from artistic work.
October 27, 2025 at 12:47 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Australians want better protections for their privacy.

A 'Right to Delete' would mean we could have control over our data, protecting ourselves from the kinds of data breaches we are seeing more and more in the news.

Join our campaign for a Right to Delete now: digitalrightswatch.o...
October 23, 2025 at 12:22 AM
drwaus.bsky.social

We were pleased to be invited to give evidence for the inquiry into the National Cultural Policy last week.

It's crucial that human rights of individual artists to own their creative works are protected, not exploited.

Video here: youtu.be/sTZCuXuOoIU...
October 10, 2025 at 12:59 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
We must be aware of the risks of a lack of human oversight over the work of generative AI. All the more reason for proper AI regulation. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/06/deloitte-to-pay-money-back-to-albanese-government-after-using-ai-in-440000-report
October 6, 2025 at 11:57 PM
drwaus.bsky.social
It's almost like banning kids from the internet isn't the answer to predatory social media algorithms pushing radical views and mis / disinformation
October 2, 2025 at 12:45 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Our fun and interactive panel event will canvas the big questions and try to come up with a few answers before this juggernaut goes out of control.

Come along to meet and mingle with people who care.
September 26, 2025 at 3:18 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Our jobs. Our culture. Our democracy. All up for grabs by emerging ‘AI’ technology.

Our fun and interactive panel event will canvass the big questions and try to come up with a few answers. Come along to meet and mingle with people who care.

Adelaide, you're first up!

unisa.edu.au/connect...
September 24, 2025 at 4:05 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Age-verification is an invasion of privacy. The technologies behind it are gender- and racially-biased and least effective where it most matters - for those ages close to 16.
It needs to be abandoned for methods which respect privacy and effectively protect children online.

www.theguardian.com/...
September 19, 2025 at 1:43 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Copyright and AI have been all over the dial recently. We're going to talk with some smart people about the AI threats to creative Australians. Join us for this zesty online briefing on the 12th August.

We'll discuss:
1/4
August 11, 2025 at 1:12 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
"I am worried about the unification of the tech industry with an authoritarian regime that creates a future where technology is used to control people, rather than give them autonomy."

Lizzie had a chat with Vogue about technology, AI and the rise of digital twins www.vogue.com.au/fashion/news...
ai digital twins Gladys Lai 16 Apr 2025
April 16, 2025 at 5:35 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Supporters in Naarm: come join us for a screening of 2073—the latest documentary from acclaimed director Asif Kapadia (AMY, SENNA)—at Cinema Nova in Carlton on 22 April, followed by a Q&A with our chair, Lizzie O'Shea.

Tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/asif-kapad...
An image of a crumbling post-apocalyptic city, with one person standing in the rubble. Text reads: Asif Kapadia's 2073 Earth Day Screening and Q&A "You won't see a more urgent, provocative or haunting film this year" "Monumentally powerful" "A galvanizing call to action" Samantha Morton 2073 Tues 22nd April 18:30PM Cinema Nova Naarm (Melbourne)
April 9, 2025 at 3:01 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
What does the fight for digital rights look like in the age of AI? We have some thoughts: digitalrightswatch.org.au/2025/03/12/t...
The Fight for Digital Rights in the Age of AI March 12, 2025 The promise of AI innovation has captured the attention of the technology industry and its associated policy makers. While we wait for the development of a National AI Capability Plan in Australia, companies are left with a set of voluntary guardrails to navigate the technologies’ associated risks.
March 12, 2025 at 5:24 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Here is the audit report referred to in the article: www.anao.gov.au/sites/defaul...
43 ATO-built AI models in production at the ATO, as of 14 May 2024. 8 Number of publicly available generative AI tools approved as low risk by the ATO, as of 18 June 2024. 74% Percentage of the ATO’s AI models in production that did not have completed data ethics assessments, as of August 2024.
February 25, 2025 at 8:09 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Australia has joined 70+ other countries to sign on to the Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable AI at this week's Paris AI Action Summit. The US and the UK have refused to sign the declaration.

www.politico.eu/wp-content/u...
Promoting AI accessibility to reduce digital divides; • Ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all • Making innovation in AI thrive by enabling conditions for its development and avoiding market concentration driving industrial recovery and development • Encouraging AI deployment that positively shapes the future of work and labour markets and delivers opportunity for sustainable growth • Making AI sustainable for people and the planet • Reinforcing international cooperation to promote coordination in international governance
February 12, 2025 at 11:59 PM
drwaus.bsky.social
The scope of the trial will cover age verification, age inference, age estimation; and assess each technology for accuracy, interoperability, reliability, ease of use, minimisation of bias, protection of privacy, human rights protections, data security, circumvention, and technology readiness level
Assessment Methodology & Test Strategy • The scope of the test effort includes technologies which provide: • Age Assurance (AA), including: • Age verification (AV) • Age inference • Age estimation (AE) • Parental controls • Parental consent • This is when they are used for the following age gates: • 18+ • 16+ • 13+ • Out of scope: • Exact age • 13-16 age range (as this is covered by the 13+ and 16+ age gates above) Assessment Criteria 1. Accuracy: how well the technology can detect a user’s age. Assessing the variance of accuracy across different environmental conditions and contexts 2. Interoperability: how well the technology can be used across multiple online platforms 3. Reliability: how consistently the technology can produce the same result 4. Ease of use: how simple the technology is to operate 5. Minimisation of bias: how well the technology avoids racial or other bias, recognising that the complete elimination of bias is unattainable 6. Protection of privacy: how well the technology protects users’ personal information Assessment Criteria (Continued) 1. Human rights protections: i.e. accessibility for all users, including people with disabilities, as well as applicable rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 2. Data security: how well the technology safeguards users’ personal information from unauthorised access, breaches or theft through, for example, the use of security by design principles and resistance to presentation attacks 3. Circumvention: resistance to presentation and injection attacks 4. Technology Readiness Level (TRL): TRLs enables consistent, uniform discussions of technical maturity across different types of technology. TRLs are based on a scale from 1 to 9 with 9 being the most mature technology
February 11, 2025 at 3:23 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
At a stakeholder event on 6 February, ACCS shared the list of 44 technology participants that had submitted expressions of interest to date in participating in the Age Assurance Technology Trial, including Meta, Snap and Yoti:
1. AgeChecked 2. Arissian Ltd 3. Assure ID 4. Austroads 5. Blue Biometrics 6. Civic 7. DigiChek 8. Eden Game Development Centre 9. euCONSENT 10. FastAs Pty 11. FrankieOne 12. Fujitsu 13. GBG PLC 14. General Identity Protocol 15. GeoComply 16. IDmission 17. IDVerse an OCR Labs company 18. IDVerse and iProov (joint EOI) 19. Incode Technologies 20. iProov 21. iLAbs 22. k-ID 23. Meta 24. MyMahi 25. Needemand 26. Netsweeper 27. One Click Group 28. Opale.io 29. Persona 30. Privately SA 31. Qoria 32. R2 Labs Pty 33. RightCrowd 34. Rigr AI 35. ShareRing 36. Shayype Solutions 37. Snap Inc and Meta (joint EOI) 38. TomorrowX 39. TruAnon 40. Trust Stamp 41. TrustElevate 42. VerifyChain Pty 43. Verifymy 44. Yoti
February 11, 2025 at 3:23 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Google has updated its AI Principles, including removing language promising not to pursue “technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.”
www.wired.com/story/google...
Google Lifts a Ban on Using Its AI for Weapons and Surveillance Google published principles in 2018 barring its AI technology from being used for sensitive purposes. Weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term, those guidelines are being overhauled. Google announced Tuesday that it is overhauling the principles governing how it uses artificial intelligence and other advanced technology. The company removed language promising not to pursue “technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” “weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people,” “technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms,” and “technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.”
February 5, 2025 at 1:16 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
It's #DataPrivacyDay!

The right to privacy is essential to other fundamental human rights. It enables freedom of speech, expression, and association. Without privacy, our democracy crumbles.
Text: Data Privacy Day 28 January. Freedom Together. Two magpies, one biting the chains from the other's ankle.
January 28, 2025 at 3:09 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
I’d love to see tranche two of privacy reform—now—that disrupts the extractive data economy and resolves some of the privacy and security vulnerabilities. I’d like to see a more nuanced approach to social media for young people.
December 11, 2024 at 2:32 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
We apologise to the committee for exceeding the desired length of submission, but we have simply not had the time to make this one shorter.

www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...
Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 [Provisions] On 21 November 2024, the Senate referred the provisions of the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for report by 26 November 2024. The closing date for submissions is 22 November 2024. Due to the short timeframe of this inquiry, the committee would appreciate submissions being limited to 1-2 pages.
November 22, 2024 at 2:37 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
We are also pleased to see recommendations for a co-design approach (not just consultation!) to regulations that affect young people. So many paternalistic knee-jerk policies, like the social media ban, are being rushed through parliament w/out including young people in the conversation.
Recommendation 6 5.145 The committee recommends that any features of the Australian Government's regulatory framework that will affect young people be co-designed with young people.
November 18, 2024 at 8:46 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
3.31 The eSafety Commissioner explained how advertising-based revenue models incentivise online services to increase engagement, 'as the more time users spend online, the more advertising revenue is generated'.24 3.32 Revenue considerations were also identified by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) as an incentive for advertising-based platforms to optimise their recommender systems to promote content based on engagement—which it described as a 'key driver for risk'.25 3.33 Likewise, Digital Rights Watch (DRW) viewed online harms as 'a symptom of data-extractive business models of digital platforms and advertisers that dominate our digital ecosystem':26 ... social media platforms reward content that keeps people on their platforms for as long as possible. This is because the more time that a person spends on a platform, the more data can be collected about them, and in- turn increases the opportunities platforms can offer to advertisers to sell targeted ads.27
November 18, 2024 at 7:55 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Much of the harms of social media platforms are consequences of a poor information ecosystem, and business models that optimise for eyeballs and attention. We cannot address social media harm without tackling the underlying systems of digital platforms - which is a greater challenge than an age ban.
It is clear from the evidence presented to the committee that there are significant risks associated with social media use. However, many of these risks appear to be driven by the business models of advertising-based social media platforms, which optimise recommender systems to promote content based on engagement. Concerningly, this often leads to the boosting of harmful material.
November 18, 2024 at 7:50 AM
drwaus.bsky.social
Prioritise Privacy Act reform, you're hearing it more and more
Recommendation 5 5.144 The committee recommends that the Australian Government prioritise proposals from the Privacy Act review relating to greater protections for the personal information of Australians and children, including as part of its suite of ongoing privacy reforms, such as the Children’s Online Privacy Code.
November 18, 2024 at 7:38 AM