The lack of a clear blueprint for vaccination ‘passports’ that addresses public concerns around safety and security risks is undermining the implementation of vaccine mandates, warns the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology.

"We have learned over past 20 years, the unintended long-term consequences from deploying technology in a time of crisis. After 9/11 government radically shifted notions of online privacy to address the terror threat, directly building the model of routine surveillance of our online behaviour for commercial ends,” said Peter Lewis, director of the Centre for Responsible Technology.

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology is calling for increased data protection for online consumers, with concerns about the vast amount of information routinely being harvested from user accounts.

The Centre singles out Amazon’s privacy terms, which in full are over 3,000 words long with many ambiguous terms and multiple links for further definitions, stating the expansive privacy terms capture unnecessary information including: email addresses from a users’ contact list, device location, content playlists and Wi-Fi credentials.

“The scope of Amazon’s data collection demands greater scrutiny,” said Peter Lewis, director of The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology.

The key measures in the Australian Human Rights Commission ‘Human Rights and Technology’ report released Thursday are strongly endorsed by the Australian public, according to new research.

A poll of 1,100 Australians conducted by Essential Research for the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology finds majority support for the key measures recommended in the report:

Key findings:

• Majority of Australians (55%) support a pause on Facial Recognition Technology in Australia until safeguards are in place, only 15% oppose
• Vast majority of Australians (62%) support requiring a human to have oversight and accountability for all automated government decisions, only 12% oppose
• Six in ten Australians (60%) require all artificial intelligence to comply with anti-discrimination laws in Australia, 13 per cent oppose

Research conducted for the Australia Institute's Centre for Responsible Technology shows 70 percent of Australians believe the big tech platforms Google and Facebook should pay more tax.

The research conducted as part of the Centre’s upcoming Big Tech Power Report has been released with news Facebook paid just $20 million in tax in Australia in 2020 against advertising revenue of $712.7 million – or less than three cents on the dollar.

"Facebook has bought the same fervour to building a dominant social network as it has to avoiding its responsibility to the nations where it operates," said Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute's Centre for Responsible Technology.

"The confused ruling by Facebook's internal oversight board highlights the need for an independent public network that is not driven by commercial objectives," said Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute's Centre for Responsible Technology.

"The Centre for Responsible Technology believes a serious look needs to be taken at building on our public broadcaster to create a civil social network where clear rules and obligations for users would exist."

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology discussion paper can be downloaded here.

A new report by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology calls for a rethink of the role of the national broadcaster to provide alternate digital spaces to Facebook and other global platforms.

The Federal Court has found that Google 'partially' misled consumers about collecting their location data, in a world-first action brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

“The reality is most people have little to no idea on how much of their data is being used by Google and online platforms,” said Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology.

“Facebook’s decision to prevent users viewing or sharing public interest journalism will make it a weaker social network,” said Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology.

“The social network is destroying its social license to operate. Facebook actions mean the company's failures in privacy, disinformation, and data protection will require a bigger push for stronger government regulation.

New Australia Institute analysis shows Google’s estimates of its economic importance to Australia are vastly overstated, and Google’s claims to generate benefits of $39 billion for businesses and $14 billion for consumers do not withstand even the most basic scrutiny. Nevertheless, the tech giant uses those figures to claim it is as important to the Australian economy as the construction industry.

In a Senate Inquiry today, Google Australia Managing Director Mel Silva told Senators “if this version of the code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia.”