The article discusses how privacy protection laws often rely on a method called de-identification, which is supposed to keep personal information safe. However, this method has been shown to fail in real-life situations. The authors explore why de-identification is still widely used despite its flaws, especially in Australia. They argue that promoting de-identification as a privacy protection method actually undermines privacy. The researchers suggest that policymakers should not rely on de-identification and instead create stronger privacy laws to protect personal data from being collected and used without consent.