A recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald, Sex, lies and a phone video, reported a story about an egregious breach of  privacy.

The story provides:

The ABC reports at Brown slams surveillance of green activists that the Federal Government has pushed for surveillance of environmental activists.

The report provides:

Greens leader Bob Brown has accused Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson of turning Australia into a police state, after reports he pushed for increased surveillance of environmental activists.

A report in Fairfax newspapers details documents, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, that show Mr Ferguson requested additional monitoring of anti-coal mining groups and other environmental groups.

Senator Brown claims Read the rest of this entry »

In‘D’ and Wentworthville Leagues Club the Privacy Commissioner made a determination that there was a breach of the complainant’s privacy under section 52 of the Privacy Act 1988 (the “Act”).

FACTS

In October 2008, the complainant lodged a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner against the Club under s 36 of the Act alleging that:

• having been a member of the Club since 1997, on 28 September 2007, the Club disclosed the complainant’s full membership details, and player activity statements about their use of the Club’s gaming machines, for the periods July–August 2002 and January–June 2003. This information was provided to the complainant’s ex-partner
• the complainant learned of the disclosure in late July 2008
• the Club gave the personal information to the complainant’s ex-partner in breach of the Act.

The complainant sought, [4], a declaration in the sum of $19,483.90 in compensation for Read the rest of this entry »

Today the Victorian Privacy Commissioner has released the latest update of the Guidelines to the Information Privacy Principles in the Information Privacy Act 2000.  The guidelines are found here.

The media release provides:

The Victorian Privacy Commissioner, Helen Versey, today released the third edition of the Guidelines to the Information Privacy Principles in the Victorian Information Privacy Act 2000.

Writing in the introduction, Ms Versey says “Five years has passed since the second edition of the Guidelines was published. Technology has continued to Read the rest of this entry »

The lads at Facebook have not been all that caught up with privacy issues of its users. They seem to take the view that being being wildly popular is the ultimate answer to any concern, trivial or major. A modern day “vox populi vox dei”. Consequently Facebook finds itself on the wrong side of privacy issues on a fairly regular basis.
In the Australian today there is another report of a continued cavalier approach to privacy.

Here is the report in toto:

FACEBOOK is facing its most serious privacy issue to date, with claims that it is collecting user’s information after they have logged out.

The issue, raised by Australian born blogger Nik Cubrilovic, has sparked a major privacy debate on the internet overnight, and follows Cubrilovic’s demonstration on his blog of Facebook keeping its browser cookies active after a user has logged out of the social network.

“Logging out of Facebook Read the rest of this entry »

The Australian has been the most active media outlet on the question of a statutory right to privacy.  It’s coverage has been generally hostile and some of its writers has been vociferously critical and sometimes to the point of being addled.

First out of the blocks is Proposed law to award privacy invasions up to $150,000 damages which provides:

CITIZENS claiming their privacy had been invaded would be in line for damages of up to $150,000 without having to prove economic loss under a proposed blueprint for new privacy laws.

But the Gillard government has committed to protecting freedom of expression and public interest reporting if it creates a legal right to sue for serious privacy invasions.

A discussion paper released today examines Read the rest of this entry »

In the Australian today there is an interesting piece on a finding of a privacy breach by the Professional Services Review.  It provides:

PATIENT privacy has been compromised in the federal government’s bid to control health spending, with a key agency found to have illegally merged data from Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

In a case likely to fuel privacy concerns over planned electronic health records, the embattled Professional Services Review has been ordered to add computer system and practice changes to a growing list of reforms.

The PSR investigates Read the rest of this entry »

Today the Attorney General has released a White paper on Cyber crime and space.  Titled, not surprisingly and a little kitchly, Cyber white it is a huge document (found here).  Submissions are open until 15 November 2011.

The joint press release states:

The Gillard Government today invited members of the public and businesses to have their say on the development of Australia’s first ever Cyber White Paper.

The Government released a public discussion paper as part of the development of the Cyber White Paper, which invites submissions on a range of issues regarding the importance of cybersp Read the rest of this entry »

It is vital that there be a sensible debate on a right to privacy, for against or in between.  There is very mixed coverage of the privacy issue today.

Peter Van Onsolen’s Political parties face hard questions on how they use our personal data in the Australian is good and highlights a clear anomaly in the privacy laws. It is a good article relating to the exemptions political parties have from the Privacy Act.  It’s relationship with a statutory duty of privacy is at best tenuous.  But it is a legitimate issue.

The report Reform push ‘not based on complaints about media’ makes clear that any statutory right to privacy is not media focused. It says in part:

A SENIOR officer at the Australian Law Reform Commission has insisted its call for a legal right to privacy was not based on any “groundswell” of complaints about the media

So what?  Sometimes law reform arises out of an incident which highlights a discrepancy or gap in the law, sometimes it is a groundswell and other times there is a general review and an amendment is proposed.

The NSW acting Privacy Commissioner John McAteer has also warned the focus of the debate about privacy should not be solely on the media in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal in Britain.

Excellent point and one that is obvious on its face.

While Mr O’Connor and Julia Gillard discussed the issue within the context of the events in Britain, ALRC senior legal officer Bruce Alston, who worked on the report, told The Australian yesterday the recommendation to establish a legal right to privacy was not just about the media.

“In recommending a statutory cause of action for an invasion of privacy, we were not responding to any groundswell of complaints against the media,” he said.

“And, in fact, we took pains to emphasis the media were not a particular target for the recommended course of action for a serious invasion of privacy.”

Mr McAteer cautioned against any discussion on privacy being solely focused on the media and said the “true importance of the debate” was that it had highlighted gaps in the law.

“The current debate has focused largely on allegations of breaches of individuals’ privacy by the media, and ensuing comments that such laws might ‘gag’ or limit the freedom of the press,” he said.

“However, the Law Reform Commission’s recommendations were not limited to actions against the media.”

Mr McAteer said that invasion of privacy tended to occur in instances such as neighbours spying on neighbours or people setting up surveillance cameras on buildings that overlooked public places.

He said privacy breaches often related to matters between citizens and government or customers and businesses.

“Most of the privacy-related complaints arise from an existing relationship between a complainant and the body they are dealing with, whether it be government or private sector,” Mr McAteer said.

A very sensible injection Read the rest of this entry »

The weekend coverage of the Privacy debate followed a predicted predictable line, with a few rays of hope and sunshine.  As Insiders host Barry Cassidy said yesterday, you will not find too many journalists supporting a tort of privacy.  And how!

In the Australian Chris Merritt slipped into his traditional bellicose stride when dealing with the whiff of any new rights in the offing. He warmed up with Undoing free speech a sop to placate Bob on Friday.  It is more assertion than argument.

THE federal government seems intent on allowing the Greens to destroy Labor’s credentials on free speech.

After permitting the Greens to vandalise the federal shield law for journalists’ sources, the government has decided to embrace the thinking of the Greens on privacy law.

A wild simplification. The interest in greater protections of privacy goes well beyond a political party.  And the interest in this area has been longstanding.

This will have the effect of reversing privacy law reforms that were enacted by Labor state governments just six years ago.

Which ones?

It will also leave federal Labor even further removed from the grand plans for transparency and accountability that were contained in the party’s 2007 election platform.

Pure and utter assertion and just plain wrong.  Having a statutory tort of privacy is Read the rest of this entry »