Should there be a legal right to privacy in Australia Essay

Should there be a legal right to privacy in Australia - Essay Example One of the countries adversely hit by the issues of privacy rights is Australia. For a long time Australia has been mentioned as lacking substantial laws that draw the lines of privacy rights in the society of Australia. With great upsurge of cases that breach privacy rights of human beings, Australia has been relying on amended acts in the constitution and the Commonwealth privacy guidelines. In the real sense, Australia needs to have well defined and elaborate privacy rights in order to safeguard its citizens from the continued abuse of personal rights through the internet. Laws governing the privacy rights in Australia need to be formulated especially in the wake of advancing technology to control the use of technological devices and systems in crushing the rights of other people. One disheartening case involving the breach of privacy rights occurred in the media reports confirming an incident where a man used mobile phone cameras to capture images of naked women in the changing r ooms in a fashion store (Donaldson 1). The dire of need for laws governing privacy rights can also be seen excavated from the case of an Australian pop musician named Sapphire who uploaded into the internet nude photos of National Rugby League player by the name Stewart Hamilton whom he happened to date for about two years. The release of the nude photos into the social sites of the internet was done without due consent of Stewart thereby raising questions as to the eligibility of the actions in line with the contemporary human rights. In this case it was analyzed that the criminal misused unregulated technology of computers to abuse fundamental rights of the uninformed women. Donaldson (1) reports that the criminal who captured the images of naked women without official assent was charged with filming for indecent reasons rather invasion of privacy. This ruling did not mean that the event never showed elements of breach of privacy rights, but it took that direction due to lack of s ubstantial privacy laws that be used to convict an individual. Another case that raised eye brows seeking to the establishment of clear privacy laws involved a businessman by the name Dirk Bowker who was late for flight from Townsville to Canberra. As a custom at the airports, Dirk had to line-up for security checkup before proceeding to the boarding gate. Since he was late for the journey, he opted to go for X-ray scanning that tended to be much quicker than other methods. It happened that X-rays scanners produce electronic images showing the naked body of passengers that is only viewed by a special security officer in a closed room. On realizing the nature of procedure underwent at airport, Dirk got frustrated and planned to sue the airport authorities for having exposed his nude during frisk. This issue carried with it some levels of confusion considering the fact that the passengers privacy rights were disclosed and that the airport officials were also performing their duty of e nsuring air security and that it was accomplished with full consent of the Dirk. This has therefore imposed alarms to the legislatures to structure laws that show clear lines and acts that need to be considered as invasions into privacy rights of individuals so as to avoid uncertainty over the convictable cases regarded as breach to people’