A bill has been introduce to parliament which will allow for the quick sharing of information gleamed from facial recognition technology between state, territory, and federal governmental bodies.

The law provides “explicit legal authority for the Department of Home Affairs to collect, use and disclose identification information in order to operate the technical systems that will facilitate the identity matching services.”

The ominously-named Identity-Matches Services Bill 2018 identifies the purposes of this information and image sharing as:

-Preventing identity crime
-General law enforcement
-National security
-Protective security
-Community safety
-Road safety
-Identity verification
They focus a lot of identity crime in the bill which they note “is one of the most common and costly crimes in Australia and a key enabler of serious and organised crime, including terrorism.”
While the focus on terrorism may be of comfort to the more scared/reactionary people in society, there are many who will shudder at the extra powers this bill grants various governmental bodies, especially when the dissemination of this facial recognition information can be covered under loose terms such as “community safety” and “general law enforcement.”
In the wrong hands, things could — and will — get messy.
As with all use of technology to impede upon the privacy of individuals, it is a slippery slope.
Don’t worry, though there is a “statement of compatibility with human rights” included in the paper work, so… rest easy?

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