{"id":34478,"date":"2025-08-24T16:53:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=34478"},"modified":"2025-08-24T16:53:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:53:30","slug":"melbourne-uni-must-apologise-for-privacy-law-breach-end-crackdown-on-palestine-protestors-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/08\/24\/melbourne-uni-must-apologise-for-privacy-law-breach-end-crackdown-on-palestine-protestors-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Uni must apologise for privacy law breach, end crackdown on Palestine protestors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Greens Deputy Leader and Higher Education Spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has strongly condemned the University of Melbourne following findings<\/a> by the Victorian Privacy and Data Protection deputy commissioner that the university unlawfully surveilled students and staff during a pro-Palestine protest by using Wi-Fi location data. The deputy commissioner found that because \u201cthe collection and use of the data involved the surveillance of students and staff, and surveillance by its nature is antithetical to human rights, the breach was serious”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Melbourne has maintained<\/a> that its use of Wi-Fi location data was reasonable \u201cgiven the overriding need to keep our community safe\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lines attributable to Senator Faruqi, Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and spokesperson for Higher Education:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe University of Melbourne has doubled down on unlawful surveillance and failed to apologise for its serious breach of privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUniversities should nurture critical thought, dissent and protest. Surveillance is the tool of authoritarian states, not places of learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUsing Wi-Fi tracking, CCTV footage and email monitoring against students and staff is a profound betrayal of trust. A university that spies on its students has lost its moral compass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUniversities should defend free expression, not police it. When a university treats protest as a crime, it betrays its own purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe University of Melbourne\u2019s claim that the surveillance was justified to ensure community safety is a harmful narrative designed to smear protestors. The real threat to safety is Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza \u2014 and yet the University continues to maintain links <\/a>with weapons companies fuelling that genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of doubling down on this punitive response\u2014one which has already harmed students and staff\u2014the University must offer an unconditional public apology, reverse all disciplinary actions against pro-Palestine protestors, end ties to weapons companies and immediately commit to transparent policy reform that respects privacy, academic freedom, and the right to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greens Deputy Leader and Higher Education Spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has strongly condemned the University of Melbourne following findings by the Victorian Privacy and Data Protection deputy commissioner that the university unlawfully surveilled students and staff during a pro-Palestine protest by using Wi-Fi location data. The deputy commissioner found that because \u201cthe collection and use of the … Continue reading “Melbourne Uni must apologise for privacy law breach, end crackdown on Palestine protestors”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34479,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34478\/revisions\/34479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}