We are seeking feedback on privacy guidelines which will help drone users and the community to understand the privacy impacts of drones, encouraging drone use that is in line with community expectations.
Why we want your input
With the rise in commercial and recreational drone use, it is increasingly important that drones are operated within the community’s reasonable expectation of privacy, including in line with relevant laws that may apply to drone use.How you can voice your opinion
After reading the draft guidelines linked below, clicking the ‘have your say’ button will lead you to multiple fields to fill out and provide your feedback by Friday 11 August 2023. You can also email us at drones@infrastructure.gov.au.What will be the outcome of this consultation?
Feedback from this public consultation will inform the final version of the guidelines document, planned for release in 2023.The Issue
When flying drones, it is important to respect privacy and we want to make it as easy as possible for everyone to understand safe and considerate drone use that is in line with community expectations, whether flying recreationally or for business.
The Privacy Guidelines for drone use bring together information about relevant legislation to provide drone users with a set of easy to follow measures to enable them to operate drones in line with the community’s reasonable expectations of privacy. In some cases, existing privacy laws refer to drone use, but others are more general. The Guidelines aim to assist drone operators to understand existing and best practice privacy obligations when using drones. The intention is not to impose any additional obligations.
The draft Guidelines include 6 Drone Privacy Principles (DPPs), underpinned by existing Commonwealth, state and territory provisions relating to privacy and surveillance devices. The DPPs include guidance on how they apply to commercial and recreational drone operators.
The draft Guidelines also aim to be a resource to educate and inform the community on what is and isn’t privacy considerate drone use and the steps they can take to find out more, or report their concerns.
The draft Guidelines have been developed through targeted engagement and consultation with state and territory governments and industry. The Guidelines and DPPs are not meant to be exhaustive, but a way to inform drone users and the community of best practice privacy considerate drone use, within existing legal settings.
For more information, visit the Drone Privacy Policy page at drones.gov.au.
Relevant documentation
Submissions to be sent to: drones@infrastructure.gov.au or through the ‘Have your say’ feature.
Participate
28 Jun 2023 10:00 AEST
11 Aug 2023 17:00 AEST
Closed
We invite you to to tell us your views on this topic.
Please include:
- contact name
- organisation name, if applicable
- contact details, including telephone number, postal and email addresses
- confirmation whether or not your submission can be made public—published—or kept confidential.
All submissions to be made public need to meet the Digital Service Standard for accessibility. Any submission that does not meet this standard may be modified before being made public.
If your submission is to be made public, please ensure you do not include any personal information that you don't want to be published.
If your submission is confidential, please ensure each page of the submission is marked as confidential.
Please click on the 'Have your say now' button below to upload your submission.
This consultation is closed.
Australian Privacy Principle 5 Notice
Drone Privacy Guidelines for Public Consultation
The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (the department) is collecting information for the purposes of consulting on Drone Privacy Guidelines, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.
The department will use this information to inform consideration of issues associated with the drone privacy guidelines and will store this information securely. It may be used by the department to make further contact with you about the review.
The department will not disclose information to third parties, except in the circumstances outlined below.
Submissions, in part or full, including the name of the author may be published on the department's website unless the submission is confidential. Confidential submissions (including the author's name) will not be published. Private addresses and contact details will not be published or disclosed to any third parties unless required by law.
Submissions will only be treated as confidential if they are expressly stated to be confidential. Automatically generated confidentiality statements or disclaimers appended to an email do not suffice for this purpose. If you wish you make a confidential submission, you should indicate this by ensuring your submission is marked confidential.
Confidential submissions will be kept securely and will only be disclosed in the following circumstances:
- in response to a request by a Commonwealth Minister
- where required by a House or a Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia
- where required by law.
The department may also disclose confidential submissions within the Commonwealth of Australia, including with other Commonwealth agencies, where necessary in the public interest.
Please note that in order to protect the personal privacy of individuals in accordance with the Privacy Act any submissions containing sensitive information, personal information or information which may reasonably be used to identify a person or group of people may not be published, even if not marked as confidential.
The department’s privacy policy contains information regarding complaint handling processes and how to access and/or seek correction of personal information held by the department. The Privacy Officer can be contacted on (02) 6274 6495 or by email: privacy@infrastructure.gov.au