The Western Australian government has tabled legislation that would strengthen the obligations of the government to protect citizens’ personal information. Data-sharing arrangements have great potential to benefit the health sector. The federal government also has an active agenda on health digitization and data sharing arrangements between agencies and private health and aged care providers.
But this comes with risks. Health datasets are attractive targets for ransomware criminals due to their size and highly sensitive nature. Western Australia’s decision to combine data sharing and privacy laws is intended to provide a holistic operational framework that enables use, and prevents this from happening.
