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Facial recognition technology is just one aspect of how businesses have used algorithms to invade our privacy.Credit:Alamy

And it’s not just about being watched. The data collected is used to group us in increasingly specific “types”,crudely robbing us of nuance and diversity,making us less likely to look at others as fully formed people.

This creepiness is also (unsurprisingly) relentlessly creeping. Year on year,more of who we are is being captured and analysed. From cookies to GPS,from the home organiser to facial recognition,each technological advance is fashioned to capture more of us.

The Albanese government is working on laws that would make our lives a little less creepy. Not before time. Our privacy laws haven’t been meaningfully updated this century,from the time when the internet was only just a thing.

The latest process started under the former Coalition government,part of the important policy challenge of implementing the full recommendations of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry into digital platforms. This is the inquiry that delivered us the News Media Bargaining Code which has placed more than $150 million into the coffers of media companies (including Nine,the owner of this masthead).

Last month,federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfusbrought forward its final report on privacy law. It’s the last step before legislation is framed and,while he won’t admit it,Dreyfus is waiting to see how this discussion plays out.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is framing new legislation aimed at stopping businesses stalking us online.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The stakes are high. To its credit,the government has put forward a set of reforms that will bring Australia into the (digitally) civilised world. By broadening the definitions of personal information,the proposed laws would cover the contextual profiles that are built up about us. They would also tighten confidentiality of data to allow people the right to clear their digital footprints.

And these laws would address exemptions provided to small business,which currently allow them,for example,to use facial recognition of customers without any recourse to regulation. Businesses can also collect and reuse highly personal property information.

Critically,the proposed laws would allow people the right to protect their interests against unlawful intrusion,with an enforceable right to privacy. This would build an enforcement mechanism into a world where penalties for Big Tech are rarely more than a slap on the wrist.

Now,strap yourselves in for a whole band of creepy vested interests who will warn that giving citizens control over their digital lives will cause the sky to fall in. Prepare for Big Tech to mobilise a legion of sock puppets representing an array of predatory industries – from sports betting to real estate,credit companies to dating apps – claiming the laws will either be unworkable or bad for business or both.

On one level they are probably right. Any business or government or political organisation for that matter – which has built its business model on shovelling large quantities of money into platforms such as Facebook,Google and increasingly TikTok to spy on us – may need to rethink its marketing.

But surely it’s time to question whether it’s our right to live a life on our terms,free from the thousands of creepy eyes that follow our every move.

And who knows what jobs would be created if we found better ways of connecting people? Indeed,there is a growing anti-creep global community centred in Europe where the General Data Protection Regulation has successfully championed personal privacy over profit prerogatives. The Albanese government’s proposal,which does a good job of aligning with the GDPR legislation,would provide any Australian business access to the lucrative “no creeps” EU economy.

Privacy rights are human rights. Nations that recognise this first will build the most positive futures for their people. Get it right and there is a world in which a nation such as Australia could become a global sandpit for technology developed and refined in a safe,controlled and civil society,much as the Danes have achieved with furniture or the Swiss with watches.

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