Privacy Commissioner warns the ‘John Smiths’ of the world can acquire ‘digital doppelgangers’

Australia’s privacy commissioner found government agencies did not adequately prevent “digital doppelganger” record intertwinement—where people with the same name and date of birth have their data wrongly merged—awarding AU$10,000 to a complainant whose Medicare records were impacted; while agencies introduced mitigations, some hindered service access. The report also notes CSIRO’s use of “digital doppelgangers” to describe digital twins, emphasizing consent, ethical data management, and safeguards against misuse.