Between Visibility and Vulnerability: Online Privacy Practices of Persons with Diverse Sexual Orientation and Gender Identities in Australia

For persons with diverse sexual orientation and gender identities (SOGI), online spaces play a vital role in building community, finding information, exploring their identities and connecting with other individuals with diverse SOGI. These online interactions also help them in circumstances where an individual's daily life may not be a safe space to express themselves. This paper reports on an empirical study that explores the online privacy management practices of people with diverse SOGI in Australia, particularly as they relate to digital social media platforms that are global and often not based in Australia. In Australia, there is no constitutional right to privacy, and this can create challenges for vulnerable populations. Much of the discourse around privacy protection fails to consider precisely what role (if any) Australia's legal frameworks play in influencing the privacy management practices of persons with diverse SOGI. As online platforms are transnational and global, and as technology evolves quickly, the law inevitably cannot keep up. Because of this, social groups such as persons with diverse SOGI may be implicated and impacted by these developments in different ways.