Australia's Privacy Payouts Escalate (but will they pass the Pub Test?)

Abstract

Something which 'passes the pub test' is 'something the ordinary patron in an Australian pub would understand and accept to be fair, were it to come up in conversation.  The test has been compared to reasonable person standards in law.  For decades, enforcement of Australia's privacy laws has been criticised widely, including by other government authorities.  It had manifestly failed to pass the pub test: principles falling far short of those in Europe; pathetic penalties; and timorous Privacy Commissioners failing to use even the limited powers that they have. The result is that Australians have no confidence that they would ever receive fair compensation for the massive data breaches that occur every week.

Since cybersecurity breaches occur every week in Australia, it is possible that that there   may be a great deal of money that Australians (or their government) are entitled to recoup for breaches of Australians’ privacy.

This paper explores why we know little about how courts or tribunals would assess what Australians' privacy is worth.

Keywords: Australia, privacy, data protection, enforcement, pub test