In the public interest in a time where privacy is going out the window and the real impacts on safety.

I was driving today really reflecting on why I like privacy. Why I want democracy. I feel much better when there is no technology stalking me or profiling me for their own interest. I don’t feel safe being identified or located when those who may be doing this could be violent.

I reflected on why I don’t want LED lights or cameras that film, pick up phones, cars, conversations, number plates, faces and locate people. I reflected on why I don’t want people to know when I am online, or who I am, or when I speak to someone on social media and the importance of privacy of that conversation.

When you are unsure who is taking your information and that their intent is not your safety in reality it is more about control or profit, you don’t feel safe.

An invasion of privacy is not dissimilar to stalking from a woman’s perspective. In Australia stalking is illegal.

A friend of mine was stalked electronically by her house mate who had cameras everywhere and even tracking devices on her car. He wanted to knows where she was at all times. She did everything in her power to stop him – including an intervention order and that he keep away from her. She did not feel safe. He was socially disconnected, he saw her as an object and he had no friends. So his life was focused on a woman who was not his partner, in reality he was deeply lonely and unable to relate. Yet she felt objectivised and harassed.

How is electronic surveillance not stalking when you are just minding your own business and someone is watching you 24/7 and recording data and then selling it to someone else for a commercial reason. How is this different from professional confidentiality and privacy?

Even in the so called pandemic the virus is a mild virus that won’t kill the majority, how does this propose a risk? How does that justify stalking?

We are in interesting times where many do not understand why privacy is not only a human right but integral to wellbeing.

Here is a video that speaks to privacy and confidentiality. It is basic respect.

Privacy (don’t look)

Includes an obligation to look at records that are assigned to you, working with a person.  It is about an individuals rights who will have access. Who is in their circle of access.  It is about an individual’s rights to access records.  It is broader.

Confidentiality (don’t tell)

A key aspect of privacy.

if look at records not allowed to tell anyone else. If not part of authorised duties

obligations to keep information confidential

So how do data gatherers respect these parameters when online? Or is this an area of international law that needs to be defined.

I do not give consent for my data to be gathered.

The more privacy is breached the higher will be mental health which defeats the official narrative of health and safety. Psychological safety is the most important need in the human condition. For those who do not understand or value privacy of others, they will see data not a human being.

We all need to have the right to determine what we reveal and what we don’t in respect of what is personal to us and what is not public. I am not a public figure. I choose when I write blogs to reveal myself but when I am walking outdoors I am not consenting to myself recorded. It is not my choice.

Here is a pdf document https://nmhccf.org.au/sites/default/files/docs/nmhccf_pc_ps_ip.pdf

Excerpt from this document:

Privacy relates to an individual’s ability to control the extent to which their personal information, enabling identification, is available to others.

Note: In Melbourne there has been footage uploaded to social media of police asking for ID and a woman refusing and then being brutally forced out of the car and arrested. What do the Victorian Police understand about privacy? What about the right to say no to one’s own personal identification.

Another woman was choked by a police officer for not wearing a mask when she had a doctors certificate. The point is not the fact she was authorised, the point is she was violently suppressed for not following rules or doing what the police officer demanded. Even if she broke the law do the police have a right to choke her? The same applies in the jails. There is no legal action taken to limit police brutality yet they say their charter is to protect public safety. What happens when they threaten public safety. Do they become a police service or a police force?

This behavior was illegal and is more in alignment with violence against women. Yet what we see is that given status people are not held to account. Why?

Confidentiality is an obligation that restricts an agency from using or disclosing any information in a way that is contrary to the interests of the person or organisation that provided it. Privacy and confidentiality are enforced by legislation and underpinned by professional codes of conduct to protect mental health information from unauthorised disclosure. For the purposes of this Position Statement, information sharing refers to the sharing of appropriate clinical and non clinical information between clinician, consumer and carer(s).