Tech giants are trying to obliterate privacy. Australia has a rare chance to take back part of their power

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, introduces the Oakley Vanguard AI glasses last year. Lizzie O’Shea writes: ‘Granting strong legal protections over personal information is one of the most important ways to reshape technology in the interests of the many, not the few.’ Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

A mere five years after the government first started talking about it, new changes have finally been proposed for the Privacy Act. They could not be more overdue and urgent. “Pervert glasses” are selling out at Kmart, facial recognition technology is proliferating in our everyday environments, and microtargeting for advertising has filled our algorithms with nonsense and toxic junk.

Privacy reform is hugely popular: 93% of Australians say protecting personal information is important to them, and 87% say they are more concerned about their privacy than they were five years ago. But it is practically impossible for us to take personal responsibility for our data footprint, especially in the age of AI. Tick-a-box consent is a broken model. Australians rate protecting our personal information as their number one priority for AI regulation.