Privacy needs to remain "front and centre" as vaccine passports and contact tracing solutions are touted as the way forward, the country's privacy watchdogs have warned.
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The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has reiterated privacy protections were an underlying pillar of any new initiatives created to help deal with the ongoing health crisis.
It comes as the federal privacy watchdog banded together with state and territory regulators to agree on a consistent national approach toward technological solutions created during the pandemic.
Under the new national COVID-19 privacy principles introduced on Thursday, governments and companies would be encouraged to follow best practices.
It will mean minimising the data collected, limiting how it can be used, housing the data securely, and deleting data once it's no longer needed.
Commissioner Angelene Falk said it was crucial they were followed in order to maintain the public's trust and confidence throughout the pandemic.
"As the next of wave of solutions are developed, we need to keep privacy front and centre," Ms Falk said.
"We want to maintain the community's trust in the use of their personal information, so we need to ensure any new proposals and solutions are built around fundamental privacy principles."
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QR code check in systems are already widely being used and concerns have been raised about how the data is being collected and where it is being used.
But with vaccine passports being readied as an important tool of the pandemic's next stage, privacy was an core part of the equation.
"[Australians] need to know their information will continue to be protected within measures that support the health and economic response - whether it's contact tracing and QR codes, vaccination certificates, or a future proposal with privacy impacts," she said.
"A nationally consistent approach to any personal information handling requirements in health orders will also reduce regulatory friction and provide certainty for the community and for businesses as we move to the next stage of the pandemic response."
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