FLEETDRIVE
Australia’ s Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries( FCAI) recently submitted a document refuting points of the country’ s Privacy Act reforms. The FCAI added its own suggestion called the“ Voluntary Code of Conduct for Automotive Data and Privacy Protection.”
Kemp argued that the signatories of the FCAI’ s code did not directly promise that they would abide by their own document. Instead, the principles of the code will“ drive their approach to treatment of vehicle-generated data and associated personal information.” Furthermore, the FCAI insists that it would“ notify” customers about third-party data collection, but this disclosure is already mandated by the Privacy Act. As mentioned by Kemp in her article, the document did not specify if violators of the code will be penalised.
Kemp advocated for“ an updated definition of‘ personal information’ and higher standards for‘ consent’” in her article. It was implied that proper reforms in Australia’ s outdated Privacy Act can provide consumers with extra protection against companies’ shady data practices. Additionally, Kemp suggested that a“ fair and reasonable test” would be used to evaluate how“ fair” a company’ s practices really are. This type of test would dispel the context of the consumer’ s consent in relation to data collection. In her words,“ this would help avoid claims [ that ] data practices are lawful just because consumers had to provide consent.”
An update to Australia’ s privacy laws is long overdue, but with a growing vehicle market, reforms to protect consumers’ data become increasingly urgent.
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ISSUE 54 AUGUST 2025 / WWW. AFMA. ORG. AU 15