Online Privacy: Legal Frameworks, Challenges, and Security Measures

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of online privacy, examining its significance in the digital age. It explores the legal frameworks in Australia, including the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and discusses the challenges posed by digital media, such as data volumes, archivability, and hardware/software failures. The essay highlights measures to ensure data privacy, including encryption, anti-malware protection, and the use of firewalls. It also analyzes the privacy practices of cloud platforms like Dropbox, iCloud, and Google. Furthermore, it compares Australian data privacy regulations with GDPR and discusses breach notification, business size applications, and reporting necessities. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of privacy in the evolving digital landscape and the need for ongoing legislative updates to protect user information.

Running head: ONLINE PRIVACY
ONLINE PRIVACY
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ONLINE PRIVACY
Introduction
The Internet has been one of the most important and universal features of day-to-day
life in the past decade of the developing world. Somewhat it can be seen in most of the cases
that technology can be termed as a double-edged sword. Though we may be able to see
enhancement in our life through technology it can even raise new concerns as the world
becomes an “information society” (Baruh, Secinti & Cemalcilar, 2017). Most of that
information not only just relates to things but even to the people. The information of common
people is been accessed, manipulated, stored, shared, data-mined, sold and bought, analyzed
and even lost or misused by numerous corporate, government, private and public agencies
without our consent or knowledge. And with respect to this, the concept of privacy is
generated.
To define privacy several attempts have been made. Privacy is considered to be a large
synonymous with a right to be let alone in a legal context. But since then others have argued
it to be only the right which prevents the disclosure of one’s personal information to others.
Privacy can be termed as the fundamental right which is essential to the autonomy and to
protect the dignity of human and it serves as the foundation which lays to several other
human rights.
Discussion
Barriers are created and boundaries are managed by privacy to protect individuals
from unnecessary interference in one’s lives. Privacy also allows conveying who one
individual is and how one wants to interact with the world around them (Goodwin & Manion,
2015). Boundaries are established by the help of privacy to limit who is been given access to
one’s body, things and places, and even one’s information and communication.
A number of significant developments have been in Australia’s legal framework
associated to privacy, which includes online privacy, in the last five years. Main
restructurings to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) were passed at the end of 2012 and in 2014 came
into effect, which includes alterations to the ideologies associated to the cross-border
revelation of statistics and direct marketing (Lustgarten, 2015). In addition, a new data

2ONLINE PRIVACY
preservation structure was conventional, becoming fully operative in early 2017, with internet
service providers obligatory to recollect certain records about online communications that can
then be retrieved by government agencies for enforcement of law and national security
purposes. An advance legislative modification in 2017 established a constraint for objects
enclosed by the Privacy Act to inform pretentious persons and the Information Commissioner
of data gaps. The Privacy Act comprises 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which
apply to certain private segment associations, as well as most Australian Government
agencies. These are cooperatively denoted as ‘APP entities’. The Privacy Act also controls
the privacy section of the customer credit reporting system, tax file numbers, and health and
medical research.
Several challenges in preservation are brought along with the growth of the
pervasiveness of digital media. Due to the short lifespan the digital materials are at a higher
risk level than the analog materials. The issues and challenges raised around digital materials
are Data volumes, the biggest challenge in increasing digitized world is the huge lump of data
that impact all the challenges and hence making it more complex and inherently larger
(Montgomery, Chester & Milosevic, 2017). The storage cost, ongoing maintenance and
downloading is more with the increase of volume of data. A second fundamental issue is
Archivability which defines what data should be preserved. The challenge here is the extent
of preservation like for what time period a data should be preserved depending on the
relevancy of the data in use. The third issue in digital media is Multiplicity this implies that
data may be present in multiple forms of the same or either different versions. Like an image
can be uploaded to iCloud, uploaded on Facebook or any other social media thus it increases
the issue to archive the original file and thus leading the data to be not of the same quality as
the real or original file.
Hardware and software failure is another issue which may result in the detrition of digital
material such as digital media stored in hard disk or USB are prone to deterioration than the
analog media. In software the data of certain file format which can be only opened in a
certain software if that software is deprecated thus it may be a huge issue to access the data
after a certain time. Thus having data of open format makes it easier to access. The most
important aspect of digital preservation is metadata. Digital materials with poor metadata
result in making the data undiscoverable and making the authenticity unverifiable. Thus the
data will not be useable and the missing or inadequate metadata even impact on rendering.
To ensure data privacy one needs to secure their device and networks and to do so
several methods can be adopted like encrypting the data, data encryption makes it more

3ONLINE PRIVACY
complex to retrieve the original data or decrypt it. Anti-malware protection which can be
attained by using some Anti-virus software. Automation of the software updates as updates
brings all-new tools to protect through new malware and thus making the privacy of data.
Using a firewall that helps to block certain dangerous programs, spyware, and viruses. Delete
and block the third party cookies of websites will make it harder for the website to track the
user data like username and to automatically sign in. The old files should be deleted from the
cloud backup, the file and media sharing should also be kept disabled.
To ensure users are protected over some cloud platforms like iCloud, Dropbox and
Google some measures are taken Dropbox has hardened its security postures once after the
2012 security concern when some compromised password was used to access the account of
an employee that gave access to the documents of users emails addresses and it got spammed.
Though the risk was not made to the stored data but it gave an alarm to the impact of damage
to the cloud business (Bartsch & Dienlin, 2016). Since then Dropbox started login with two-
step verification which adds an extra step to the protection of user accounts. In case of
iCloud, the two-factor verification was already present but still, hackers have stolen images
of some celebrities and published it online thus pointed that iCloud is also insecure and can
be vulnerable to phishing attacks. To access iCloud from other applications of Apple some
secure tokens are used for the authentication purpose and even optional two-factor
verification can be turned on.
Google use one account to access all the application thus login is made paramount.
Google has been the victim of password compromise security issue which impacts on many
services. Around 5 million Gmail accounts got hacked once a database was discarded on the
Russian security forum (Tucker, 2014). As the same account for Gmail is used for Google
Drive it makes it more vulnerable to attacks. HTTPS is now used by Google on its services
and even implementing some internal measures to look out for the activity of account login.
Two-step verification is also offered by Google and encrypts the data using SSL at stores in
128-bit AES.
According to new technologies emerging the legislator should pass some new laws to
the privacy protection act accordingly to the products that collect information about the users.
Some key changes have been made to the existing Privacy Act 1988 in 2012 which created a
sole set of Australian Privacy Principle (APPs) and which applies to both the Government
agencies of Australia as well the private sector. The Information Privacy Principles is
substituted and even the National Privacy Principles by these principles and thus setting out
rights, standards, and obligation for control, holding, collecting, using, accessing, revealing

4ONLINE PRIVACY
and modifying personal information (Bennett & Raab, 2017). The powers and function of the
Australian Information Commissioner are been strengthen to resolve the complaints,
conducting the investigation, promoting compliances and using the external dispute to
resolute services.
Few considerations can be noted to influence one’s view on expected and desired level
of digital privacy. People are now realizing that it is difficult for an average individual to
track their sensitive information that has been collected and who may access it. Furthermore,
the digital footprint of every individual is spreading at a very high rate and untraceable
corners of the digital world (Park, 2013). The way the information can be shared or used,
combined, and mined may lead to catastrophic consequences for the person’s financial or
personal well-being or even for the whole society.
There are few key alterations between the Australian Data Privacy Regulation and
GDPR concerning breach notification and timeframe, “serious harm”, business size
applications and reporting necessities. On the books today GDPR is the most premier data
privacy regulation (Rotenberg & Jacobs, 2013). The first difference is the “real risk of serious
harm” qualifier with denoting to a data breach. The Act does not outline “serious harm” but
OAIC describes it as it may comprise thoughtful emotional, psychological, financial, physical
or reputational harm. By distinction, the GDPR does not make a dissimilarity as stated in
Article 33.
The Australian Data Privacy Regulation provides some compulsory lowest limitations
for the Australian Government agencies, non-profit organizations, and businesses that have a
revenue of $3 million or more (von Dietze & Allgrove, 2014). This distinction is not made in
GDPR any business or government agency which processes or controls data subject personal
identification info is subject to regulation. The ADPR provides 30 days to assess the sign of a
recognised data opening and reports to the representative. The GDPR does not incorporate
any valuation period and usages “deprived of unnecessary delay upon becoming aware of a
data breach” (Goddard, 2017).
Conclusion
This study concludes that privacy is a very serious concern in the developing world.
Information on individuals is been used without the consent of the users which arises to many
privacy issues. This study also discussed the issues concerned with digital materials, some
measures to ensure the safety of users while using Google, Facebook or iCloud, the level of

5ONLINE PRIVACY
privacy for certain individuals, the new laws passed by the legislative authorities and the
functional comparison of privacy law in European Union and Australia.

6ONLINE PRIVACY
References
Baruh, L., Secinti, E., & Cemalcilar, Z. (2017). Online privacy concerns and privacy
management: A meta-analytical review. Journal of Communication, 67(1), 26-53.
Bartsch, M., & Dienlin, T. (2016). Control your Facebook: An analysis of online privacy
literacy. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, 147-154.
Goodwin, J. C., & Manion, J. R. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 9,003,552. Washington, DC: U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office.
Montgomery, K. C., Chester, J., & Milosevic, T. (2017). Ensuring young people’s digital
privacy as a fundamental right. In International handbook of media literacy education(pp. 85-
102). Routledge.
Lustgarten, S. D. (2015). Emerging ethical threats to client privacy in cloud communication
and data storage. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 46(3), 154.
Tucker, C. E. (2014). Social networks, personalized advertising, and privacy
controls. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(5), 546-562.
Park, Y. J. (2013). Digital literacy and privacy behavior online. Communication
Research, 40(2), 215-236.
von Dietze, A., & Allgrove, A. M. (2014). Australian privacy reforms—an overhauled data
protection regime for Australia. International Data Privacy Law, 4(4), 326-341.
Rotenberg, M., & Jacobs, D. (2013). Updating the law of information privacy: the new
framework of the European Union. Harv. JL & Pub. Pol'y, 36, 605.
Bennett, C. J., & Raab, C. D. (2017). The governance of privacy: Policy instruments in
global perspective. Routledge.
Goddard, M. (2017). The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): European
regulation that has a global impact. International Journal of Market Research, 59(6), 703-
705.