Australians may have to hand over more personal data and big tech firms face $50m fines, but there are a number of questions that are yet to be answered

The federal government’s proposed social media ban for under-16s has been unveiled in the parliament, with $50m in fines for big tech companies which don’t comply – and an admission from Labor the new rules may require all Australians to hand over more of their personal data.

But while the government has promised “robust” privacy protections for that extra information, and bans on social media giants using that data for other purposes, we still don’t know exactly what kind of data people will have to hand over. The government instead is kicking that can to the big tech firms themselves, essentially asking Facebook, Snapchat and X to come up with their own systems instead.

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