Perth Airport Wi-Fi rules criticized as major privacy risk
Perth Airport’s free public Wi-Fi policy has been criticized by a Western Australian MP and a digital rights expert, who have called it a breach of user privacy.
As the ABC reported, Perth’s public Wi-Fi policy allows it to use data collected in the process in any way it sees fit.
“By submitting your content through any of the PAPL application or online services, you grant us (our successors and our related corporate entities, partners and their successors) a royalty-free, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide, to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, transmit, sublicense and/or exploit part or all of Your Content in any medium (including, without limitation, online services), by any means or for any purpose, and authorize others to do it,” said the policy.
The terms and conditions also said that the airport and all parties mentioned above could also “do or omit to do anything with Your Content that may infringe their moral rights in Your Content,” such as altering, editing or reproducing it.
Western Australian Liberal member for Cottesloe David Honey shared the terms and conditions on his Facebook page, calling them an “absolute disgrace”.
Speaking to ABC Radio Perth, Honey’s main concern was content related to her family.
“The way I read it was that if I send a photo of myself or one of my children or my grandchildren, they own the content and they can use it for any purpose, they can use it for advertising purposes or in perpetuity. forever,” he said.
“It baffles me that a service provider includes that in their terms and conditions.
“This idea that they can take your content and use it for any purpose they choose, commercial or otherwise, I think is deeply offensive. “I think most people would be absolutely stunned.”
Digital Rights Watch president Lizzie O’Shea told ABC Radio Perth that terms like this were actually common, but did not deny the privacy concerns they raise.
“What it highlights is a real deficiency in how personal information is regulated in the digital age and that the privacy laws we have in Australia are not fit for purpose,” he said.
Perth Airport told the ABC it had no intention of using customer content and that its terms were standard across all its services.
“Where Perth Airport offers Wi-Fi, it is subject to an acceptable use policy set by our internet service provider,” an airport spokesperson said.
“This requires Perth Airport to ensure that content uploaded by customers is not defamatory, offensive or infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties.
“This term is simply a standard term used on a number of our online services, such as our social pages where members of the public choose to upload or share images with us or enter competitions.”
