By Alex Crowe
The University of Melbourne is being investigated for potentially breaching privacy laws by using surveillance technology to identify students involved in a sit-in during protests over the war in Gaza in May.
Twenty-one students who are facing suspension or expulsion over the protests were emailed CCTV images of themselves inside the Arts West Building on the university’s Parkville campus during the multi-day sit-in.
The University of Melbourne is facing an investigation over surveillance of protesting students.Credit: Jason South
Alongside the zoomed-in stills were details of the students’ use of the campus Wi-Fi network, which the university said was evidence of alleged wrongdoing that would be presented when misconduct trials begin on Wednesday.
The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner confirmed on Monday it had begun preliminary inquiries into the University of Melbourne, which is bound by the Privacy and Data Protection Act.
A spokeswoman for the commissioner’s office said an organisation could be issued a compliance notice if its investigation determined it had committed a serious, flagrant or repeated breach of privacy principles.
The spokeswoman said a compliance notice requires an organisation to take action within a specified timeframe to comply with legislation.
Students protest over the war in Gaza at the University of Melbourne on May 3.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
The university’s use of surveillance technology has drawn criticism from legal professionals and union officials, who have called for misconduct trials to be cancelled or delayed until the investigation has concluded.
Students facing disciplinary action include Palestinians, as well as medicine and law students who could be penalised in their future careers.
The University of Melbourne did not respond to questions from The Age about whether it had misled the public by claiming its tracking technology could not identify individuals.
A spokesman said the institution was unable to comment on individual matters “in line with our confidentiality requirements and our commitment to procedural fairness under university policy”.
The university would not say whether the students’ misconduct hearings would be postponed.
The National Tertiary Education Union’s University of Melbourne branch has called for disciplinary action against the students to be scrapped given the investigation into the university.
“Deputy vice chancellor Pip Nicholson should immediately cancel these student misconduct hearings,” branch president David Gonzalez said.
“Melbourne University students who participated in the sit-in did so under the expectation that under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights, their peaceful protest was protected under that law.”
Among the allegations made by the university are that the students’ sit-in of the Arts West Building was a health and safety concern that led to the cancellation of classes.
Gonzalez said there was no evidence of safety concerns when the tertiary education union’s health and safety officers inspected the building during the protests.
“These students should have never been tracked as they were in a safe environment. Deputy vice-chancellor Pip Nicholson should do the right thing and dismiss these charges immediately,” he said.
In 2016, the university responded to privacy concerns by claiming its tracking technology – which was new at the time and introduced to improve retention rates – could not be used to identify individual students.
At the time, academics raised the concern of function creep, warning the stated purpose for collecting data could change over time.
Lawyer Lizzie O’Shea of campaign group Digital Rights Watch said this incident highlighted the surveillance capabilities of universities.
“This investigation will hopefully make clear that there are limits imposed by various laws, but also more broadly, it will be an opportunity for the public to consider whether there is a social licence for such surveillance,” she said.
O’Shea said given what was at stake for the students subject to disciplinary proceedings, as well as other students using campus facilities, it was vital to establish whether the university had complied with the law.
“If there is any doubt about the university’s approach to collecting and using personal information, it would be appropriate to wait for the outcome of that investigation before the disciplinary process goes ahead,” she said.
The university says on its website that its policy for collecting biometric data from staff and students “is voluntary and based on your consent”.
Dana Alshaer, a Palestinian on a scholarship to study international relations in Australia, said the use of surveillance technology triggered a familiar feeling of being watched while at home in the West Bank.
Alshaer, who must leave Australia after completing her degree this year as a condition of her scholarship, said Palestinians are the most surveilled people in the world.
“You have soldiers everywhere, you have drones, you have all these surveillance technologies and techniques on every single corner of any street,” she said.
Alshaer said the misconduct trial stress had been on top of trying to decide where to live, given her activism made it unsafe to return to the West Bank
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