"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Interesting that Australia chose to destroy that personal information
permanently, rather than just embargo it for a period of time (eg 100
years, as in the UK) so as to prevent (to a good approximation) any
information being released about people who are still living.

Yeah, it is always controversial here whether we should
keep doing that, because it does mean that historical
research is much harder with well known people etc.

Interesting how different countries have very different policies on privacy
and confidentiality. Has it always been the case that Australia has
forbidden access to censuses, right from the first census which I imagine
was some time in the 1800s? Or did they initially have a
free-access-after-an-embargo-period policy, and only later tighten up the
security for subsequent censuses?

It's like different countries' rules on the use of dashcams - and indeed
photography of any sort in a public place. Some countries ban photography in
or of transport (no photos of trains and railway stations, or of planes and
airports). Some countries totally ban the use (or even possession) of
dashcams; some say that the footage must be deleted immediately afterwards
unless it's kept for a specific insurance claim (ie you can't use it to
document a route that you are driving); some (like the UK) are very relaxed
about what you can use dashcam footage for, and can even post it on Youtube
etc (*). Some countries totally ban Google Streetview; others just require
than faces and car numbers are blurred-out. My feeling is that you shouldn't
do anything "in public" (ie outside the boundary of your house and garden)
that you'd be embarrassed about seeing on Youtube or Streetview: you expect
to be able to bonk or walk around naked anywhere within your house (maybe
with the curtains closed!) and perhaps in a very secluded not-overlooked
part of your garden - but nowhere else. (**)

The blurring-out of car numbers on Streetview is a real pain because it also
blurs out house numbers. I have to visit a lot of people at home, and once I
have their address I usually look for their house on Streetview so I know
what I will be looking for when I'm driving there later on. But the
algorithms that blur out car numbers often blur out signs with house numbers
and names, so sometimes it's necessary to "walk" up and down the street for
a house that *does* have a decipherable number, and then count backwards
from there. If Streetview went on the day that people put their dustbins
out, that is a bonus because many people have large figures on their bins to
make sure they are returned to the correct house.

Then there's the issue of reporting suspects' identities when they've been
arrested and/or are being tried. Some countries have total anonymity. The
general policy in the UK is that identities are kept secret when someone has
only been arrested, and then reported if they are charged and it goes to
trial. But there's the thorny issue of revealing the identities of rape
suspects, because human nature is such that even if someone is found not
guilty, people assume that they may have been guilty all along but it
couldn't be proved. It's particularly a problem where the accusation of rape
was malicious - perhaps even provably so - but the suspect's identity is
already known and can never become un-known if it was proved to be
malicious. I'd say that if it is proved to be malicious, the victim's right
to anonymity (which is normally needed) should be removed.


(*) Though it does work both ways. Apparently if the police see that you
have a dashcam when you are involved in an accident, they can demand the
footage, on pain of a "with-holding information" charge if you refuse, to
see how *you* were driving beforehand, as well as seeing how the other
driver was driving.

(**) The only time I've gone naked in public was on a very private beach on
the Isle of Wight which is known to be an unofficial nudist beach. And my
wife and I did feel a bit weird initially getting our kit off to sunbathe,
with other people all around. Seeing people playing volleyball etc with all
their relevant bits flopping around, decidedly unnerving. I gather that
there is an unwritten "no staring or ogling" rule ;-) And definitely no long
camera lenses...