Human Rights 2019 - Data is the New Black

This talk, by Professor Kate Galloway of Bond University explores how every aspect of our lives is awash with data and the technology to gather, aggregate, analyse, and share it. We are captivated by the convenience and the radical potential that data and data technologies bring. In a nation without a bill of rights, however, the Australian government has expanded its remit over the citizen through a suite of measures that together bear the hallmarks of a normalised state surveillance architecture. Its most recent iteration is the so-called Encryption Bill, passed in late 2018. The legislation gives the green light to break encryption encoded into our devices and software—eroding the last frontier of security for all our online communication. With reference to recent government initiatives including the encryption legislation, Kate argues that the need for enhanced, digitally capable governance is a cornerstone of a contemporary rule of law. We need a Parliament and executive branch that understand the capacity of technology to erode the ‘breathing space’ for the citizen beyond the gaze of the State. And we need a citizenry with the capability to understand and agitate for privacy protection. Data may well be the ‘new black’. But privacy is its ‘must-have’ accessory.

Bio: Kate Galloway is associate professor of law at Bond University, and the senior law and technology analyst for civil society group, Future Wise. She researches the intersection between law and technology, and is a regular speaker and commentator on the role of
technology in the law, in legal practice, and in legal education with particular emphasis on the incursion of government power on the citizen.