Institutional evolution, practical features, and implications for China of Australia's personal information protection governance

作者：Le Li, Zixuan Xu · 发表于：Modern Science · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.3724/j.issn.1671-4342.20260019 · 研究领域：Privacy, Security, and Data Protection、Big Data and Digital Economy、Information and Cyber Security

In the era of the digital economy, personal information protection is facing new challenges. As one of the earliest countries in the world to enact privacy legislation, Australia's personal information protection regime has undergone multiple rounds of reform, showing a gradual development from preliminary regulation to precise governance. Using case study and comparative analysis methods, this paper adopts the analytical framework of "institutional evolution—practical features—local adaptation" to systematically examine the development stages, driving factors, and practical measures of Australia's personal information protection. It identifies five core features: establishing a coordinated regulatory mechanism for personal information protection, improving the data breach response system, promoting privacy impact assessments, building a nationwide privacy education system, and applying digital technologies to governance. Based on a comparison of the institutional differences between China and Australia, this paper proposes China-specific adaptation pathways in five dimensions: promoting the construction of a unified and coordinated regulatory system, improving the full-chain response mechanism, strengthening pre-risk governance, enhancing the public's privacy protection capacity, and advancing the application of privacy-enhancing technologies.