December 12, 2011
There has been widespread reportage of privacy breaches at the Telstra bigpond site last weekend.
Typical of the reportage is that in the Herald Sun which provides:
The majority of BigPond email users have been reconnected after a privacy breach shut down the system for more than 24 hours.
“BigPond email has Read the rest of this entry »
The Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 will commence on 4 January 2012. It passed through Parliament on 25 November 2011.
The Attorney General’s press release provides:
The new Act will also improve parliamentary scrutiny of legislation for consistency with Australia’s human rights obligations through two measures:
December 5, 2011
Facebook Inc has entered into a consent order regarding its privacy practices and settings. It is found here.
Pursuant to the agreement (which contains the order) Facebook will have to obtain “affirmative express consent” from its users before imposing material changes to their privacy settings.
The order provides:
“[Facebook] shall clearly and prominently disclose to the user, separate and apart from any ‘privacy policy,’ ‘data use policy,’ ‘statement of rights and responsibilities’ page, or other similar document: the categories of nonpublic user information that will be disclosed to such third parties, the identity or specific categories of such third parties, and that such sharing exceeds the restrictions imposed by the privacy setting(s) in effect for the user; and obtain the user’s affirmative express consent.”
Facebook is barred from misrepresenting Read the rest of this entry »
December 2, 2011
In Maietti v Riccardi [2011] VSC 620 Beach J considered the requirements for properly pleading conversations, and where they are in a foreign language, provide proper translations.
The paragraph of hte statement of claim provided:
“On several occasions between August and October 2010, during the course of telephone conversations conducted in the Italian language which the defendant had with Paolo Sepe in the State of Victoria the defendant spoke the following defamatory words of and concerning the plaintiff, namely, words to the effect that the plaintiff:
(a) as treasurer of the Association [Laziali Nel Mondo Victoria Australia] had misappropriated its funds;
(b) as treasurer of the Association had stolen its funds;
(c) as treasurer of the Association, was responsible for the fact that funds were missing from the Association’s bank account;
(d) as treasurer of the Association had falsely claimed that he had spent $500 of the Association’s funds purchasing postage stamps on behalf of the Association.”
His Honour said, at [7], that the settled relevant practice on pleading was:
(a) first, Read the rest of this entry »
The Australian has two pieces regarding privacy;It’s now or never for action on a privacy tort: Kirby and Testing process of silk selection in state of flux.
In It’s now or never for action on a privacy tort: Kirby the article provides:
IF the government does not introduce statutory protections against serious invasions of privacy in the wake of the British phone hacking scandal it will never happen, Michael Kirby has declared.
Mr Kirby, former High Court judge and Australia’s most prominent advocate for strengthened privacy laws, this week urged the Gillard government to Read the rest of this entry »
December 1, 2011
Out – Law.com reports a speech by Lord Justice Jackson where he said the costs implications of incorrect electronic disclosure or inappropriate disclosure orders were potentially “huge”. He was an author of a report on the cost of litigation.
“[Consultants] understand their own software systems, but it is the solicitors and counsel involved who best understand the case… Disclosure is not an activity which can be outsourced in its entirety to external consultants. No existing software programme is capable of achieving standard discovery,” he said.
Electronic disclosure, or e-disclosure, is the process of identifying, preserving, collecting, filtering, reviewing and disclosing electronically stored information. This can include information stored on personal computers, mobile phones and memory sticks; as well as email, documents and calendar files.
In the UK rules electronic disclosure in civil cases were introduced by practice direction to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) in October 2010. In any case where documents relevant to a case are stored electronically, the parties must consider and discuss how disclosure should be carried out at an early stage. All relevant documents must be preserved from the time when court action was first contemplated.
As part of his civil costs review, Jackson recommended Read the rest of this entry »