Privacy 108 Webinar on Digital Regulation in Australia (Privacy Awareness Week 2026)

For Privacy Awareness Week 2026, Dr Jodie Siganto, founder of Privacy 108, presented on the history of digital regulation in Australia, with a focus on privacy and data protection. She examined some of the key issues and the underlying contest of ideas that have shaped Australia’s ability to effectively regulate the digital space.

Some progress had been made with privacy reform, with additional key reforms on the horizon, and bold moves had been made to ban social media use for under-16s. However, AI regulation had stalled even as the societal and environmental harms linked to its use were crystallising. These initiatives revealed some of the tensions between the growing need to protect citizens and the community while enabling digital transformation.

Australia’s path was not forged in isolation. International tensions, between the EU’s rights-driven approach and the US’s market-led model, were influencing the global regulatory landscape. Dr Siganto examined how these competing philosophies rippled into Australia’s policymaking, and what this meant for businesses, communities, and the future of digital governance.

The session invited participants to consider: Can Australia resist the gravitational forces of global digital power blocs and carve out a distinctive regulatory identity?