Privacy Annual Update 2024

Each year, we write this publication to recap the key developments in Australian privacy law over the past year. What a momentous year this was! With a long-running law reform process finally resulting in the Privacy and Other  Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Cth) (the Bill) landing in Parliament in September (and after some minor tinkering in the Senate passing in a rush of legislative activity on the final sitting day of the year).

While the Bill was widely considered to be anticlimactic, implementing only a limited first ‘tranche’ of reforms, it nevertheless represents a major landmark. The more impactful aspects of the Bill include the establishment of a new statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy (something that Australian lawmakers have flirted with for many decades) and a significant expansion of the Australian Information Commissioner’s  enforcement powers.

We have written extensively on the Bill and its potential implications. You can access highlighted articles via the links in the panel below and learn more by visiting the KWM Data  and Privacy page. So, although there is no doubt the Bill was the major talking point in privacy law this year, we will avoid taking up additional space discussing it in our Annual Review. Instead, our focus will be on the other privacy law developments that you may have missed amidst all the excitement.

There is certainly no shortage of ground to cover, with many of the more nuanced and sometimes contentious areas within the current law having received some fresh and much-needed scrutiny over the past year. And with a newly enforcement- focussed regulator, and a multiplicity of privacy-related claims hitting the courts, the rate of change is unlikely to slacken any time soon.

These are important developments, and we hope you will find value in reading our take on their implications for Australian businesses. No doubt there will be further exciting developments in 2025, as we look forward to the next tranche of Privacy Act reforms.

As always, please reach out at any time to a member of the KWM Privacy Team if you would like to discuss the potential impact on your business. To stay in touch with privacyand other tech-related regulatory developments, please remember to visit and bookmark the KWM Tech Regulation Tracker.