Australian Privacy Reforms: Are we getting the right to be forgotten?

This week Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus confirmed we will see a ‘whole range’ of modernisations as part of the Australian government’s reform of the Privacy Act.

The right to be forgotten - also called the right to erasure - could be one of those changes.

Under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the right to be forgotten gives individuals the right to ask an entity in certain circumstances to destroy the personal information that the entity holds about them.

Australians don’t currently have this right under the Privacy Act.

Under the existing Australian regime, individuals can ask an entity to provide them with access to the…