Adventure Ausrama Blog

Even if you shop online you are being watched. Furthermore, new technology is being rolled out in Australian shops to find out your shopping habits. This does not just include purchasing. The way you examine goods will also be recorded and analysed. The other day I was in Coles supermarket. I examined a product and put it back on the shelf. Then I continued into the fresh vegetable section. I was accosted there by a shop assistance who said I must purchase the product because I had lifted the wrapping on the corner. It was captured on camera.  This was a bit of a shock I must say. The key to avoiding being tracked is to leave your mobile phone at home. Phones are being used as tracking sources without your permission. The government is going to allow this. To gain access to wi-fi you will unwittingly give your permission to be tracked. To confuse those collecting data you can lend your mobile to family members, or even wear a dress if you are a man. Westfield sho...

While some countries have embraced general camera surveillance others are still cautious. The problem is that in national constitutions people have a right to privacy. Cameras placed in public streets clearly trample over this right. Nowra, a town in New South Wales, has come face-to-face with this issue. An Australian rights campaigner, Adam Bonner, took the local council to a tribunal and a decision was made to order the council to desist from breaching the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act. It was not an instruction to turn the cameras off but it had the same result. The Administrative Decisions Tribunal New South Wales decision has thrown a spanner into the works nationwide. State bodies set precedents for national courts. It has shown, however, that people can act locally to stop camera surveillance at local government level. One person has stopped a council in its tracks. The Nowra Council did not help itself by telling the tribunal that the cameras were n...