In A & J Morphett Nominees Pty Ltd v JBT Lawyers Pty Ltd & Anor [2022] VSC 238 Justice Dixon in upholding an appeal made important statements for practitioners on the role of stakeholders.

FACTS

On 26 November 2018 the appellant and Chloe Estelle Pty Ltd entered into the contract with the appellant paying the deposit of $42,000 to the respondent on 6 December 2018 [4].

On 21 March 2019, the appellant by written notice terminated the contract and requested that the respondent repay the deposit to it [4].

The appellant, A & J Morphett Nominees Pty Ltd, commenced proceedings against Chloe Estelle Pty Ltd, as first defendant, and the respondent, JBT Lawyers Pty Ltd, as second defendant in the Magistrates Court.  In its defence the respondent admitted that it received the deposit sum as a stakeholder as alleged by the appellant [6].

On 24 June 2019, the appellant entered default judgment in the proceeding against Chloe Estelle Pty Ltd, which included an amount for interest and costs [7]. The appellant did not recover against Chloe Estelle Pty Ltd as it was and on 18 July 2019, an administrator was appointed and it was subsequently ordered to be wound up. The liquidators made no claim for the deposit.

It was never been in dispute that the respondent received that sum as a stakeholder for the appellant and Chloe Estelle Pty Ltd [3].

On 29 March 2019, the Federal Circuit Court, per Small J,made an order in a Family Law dispute between different parties.  It relevantly Read the rest of this entry »

The arrest and charging of Dean Laidley for what has been described as stalking is a matter of public record.  He appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates Court and was remanded.  As no suppression or pseudonomysation orders  were made those details can be reported. 

However photographs police take of those charged are not public documents.  They are taken for the purpose of properly recording the processing of a person into custody.  Their purpose does not extend to providing colour to a story.  Further, other photographs taken in a police station of a suspect or a person charged are not for public consumption. Frankly there is no good reason for taking other still photographs. 

It is then appalling to see that the Herald Sun has Read the rest of this entry »

In a brilliant piece of analysis Dr Chris Culnane, Associate Professor Benjamin Rubinstein and Associate Professor Vanessa Teague of the University of Melbourne have demonstrated in their paper released today titled Stop the Open Data Bus, We Want to Get Off that de identification of unit record level data does not work without substantially altering the data to the point where its value is reduced.  The analysis was based on the data released by the Victorian Government in to a data science competition.  The authors have demonstrated that a combination of only needing a small number of points of information to make an individual unique and poor quality anonymisation and security techniques makes it quite easy to reidentify individuals. 

In the case of the myki data the authors found that “little to no de identification took place on the bulk of the data.”  They found it was a straightforward task to re identify two of the co authors cards.  They also established that is possible to identify a stranger from public information about their travel patterns, for example twitter to name just one source.  They identified Read the rest of this entry »

As of 1 September 2017 the State of Victoria will have an Information Commissioner, replacing the position of Privacy Commissioner.  The Information Commissioner will also be responsible for Freedom of Information applications.

The inaugural Information Commissioner is Sven Bluemmel.  Mr Bluemmel was Read the rest of this entry »

Misuse of confidential information and regular data breaches has been a longstanding and systemic problem for the Victorian Police Force.  In the past two years I have posted on problems with the misuse of the LEAP database, which contains personal information of Victorians, here and here.  Police documents containing sensitive personal information were found in the possession of outlaw bikie gang members in 2013.

In his 2016 annual report Victorian Commissioner for Privacy and Data Security set out problems in the Victorian Police with data management.  There was a 36% increase in data security breaches over the previous year.  The Commissioner identified Read the rest of this entry »

Breach of confidence actions involving personal information are more famously litigated in the United Kingdom.  Privacy related actions have developed and matured there while the action remains more tentative in Australia.  Or at least less developed.  That is not to say equity does not afford protection.  And that includes injunctive relief.  The Herald Sun reports in Suzie Wilks’ estranged husband Nick O?Halloran in court bid to prevent publication of top-secret letter about an injunction granted to a Mr O’Halloran by the Supreme Court last week.  There is no formal publication of any order or reasons for decision  according to Read the rest of this entry »

The Age reports in Schoolboy hacks Public Transport Victoria website how a 16 year old, Joshua Rogers, hacked into the Public Transport Victoria (“PTV”) website. The article notes that after Joshua notified the PTV of the security flaws it kindly notified the police and the Privacy Commissioner.  The reasons were not provided.  It will be interesting to see how both guardians, one of law and order and the other of privacy, will respond to the challenge.  Given PTV’s database contains vast amounts of personal information, including credit card details,the reported inadequacy of its on line security is a major concern.  Hopefully the Privacy Commissioner will take a robust approach when investigating this alleged failing. It would be fascinating to see what the results of a Privacy Impact Assessment by the PTV will reveal. Of course that won’t be made public.  Assuming it happens.

The article provides:

Personal information Read the rest of this entry »

The 2-12/13 annual report of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner was been tabled in Parliament on 19 September 2013 .  It is found here.  It provides for interesting reading, if that takes and holds your attention (as it does for me).

Some of the interesting statistics are that during 2012-13:

In Complainant AY v Public Sector Employer [2013] VPrivCmr 02 the Victorian Privacy Commissioner considered a serious complaint about a breach of privacy by a public sector employer.

FACTS

In approximately 2006 Read the rest of this entry »