Every Christmas I can’t resist posting one of the most famous and moving editorial pieces about the spirit of Christmas.  The Yes Viriginia there is a Santa Claus” response to an innocent enquiry of an eight year old.  It is found here (as well as many other places including here).

It is worth setting out the entire exchange

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

The meaning of Christmas goes well beyond the beautiful words written over a hundred years ago but these sentiments, if followed, are often enough.

Griffiths J in Platinum Communications Pty Ltd v Computer Networks Pty Limited [2012] FCA 1260 considered an amendment to application to set aside a statutory demand.

FACTS

The plaintiff, a retailer, and the defendant, a software provider, entered into an agreement whereby the plaintiff would use the defendant’s software under licence and receive related services for payment [1].  When the software was switched on the plaintiff suffered difficulties in many of its stores [7].  The plaintiff claimed Read the rest of this entry »

The Economist in Know thyself, undertakes a brief review of the data locker phenomena (including as a privacy protection device).

It provides:

On 12 December Lord Justice Leveson gave his second speech in a week, titled Hold the Front Page – News gathering in a time of change.  It is a broad ranging consideration of the law and the internet.

It provides:

Introduction
1. It is a real privilege to have been asked to give this public lecture and, echoing the Vice Chancellor, I am pleased to acknowledge that we are standing on the land of the Wurundjeri people and to pay respect to their Elders and families past and present. I would also like to thank the Centre for Advanced Journalism at the University of Melbourne for the invitation. I am delighted to be here.
2. I hope you will forgive me for providing some context to what I am about to say. As you are aware, I have spent the last 17 months engaged in an Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press. The Report was published nearly a fortnight ago, on 29 November 2012, and, as I have said before, it may be that some of you are hoping that I will elaborate. If you Read the rest of this entry »

The Economist has written a very interesting story on recent developments in on line privacy in Difference Engine: Nobbling the internet .

It provides:

TWO measures affecting the privacy internet users can expect in years ahead are currently under discussion on opposite sides of the globe. The first hails from a Senate committee’s determination to make America’s online privacy laws even more robust. The second concerns efforts by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations, to rewrite its treaty for regulating telecommunications around the world, which dates from 1988, so as to bring the internet into its fief.

Many fear Read the rest of this entry »

Lord Neuberger gave a speech to the UK Association of Jewish Lawyers on 28 November titled Privacy in the 21st Century.

It is an excellent consideration of the history of privacy protections in the UK and a thoughtful analysis of future challenges.  It should be required reading for those with an interest in privacy and privacy related jurisprudence.

It provides, absent citations:

(1) Introduction1
1. Good evening. It is a pleasure to have been asked to give tonight’s lecture. Privacy is a subject which seems to be forever topical. It excites (in both senses of the word) public discussion, while demanding considered reflection. And it raises many difficult and, often, controversial questions. Is privacy a value which society should protect? If so, to what extent? Is protection of privacy a fetter on freedom of expression? If so, can and should a balance be struck between them? And if so, what type of balance? Should, for instance, freedom of expression always trump privacy, as it is sometimes suggested is the position in the United States? A suggestion, I may add, which ignores a variety of US statutes and constitutional provisions which protect certain aspects of privacy to varying degrees, subject to the First Amendment protection of freedom of speech and expression.
2. And is privacy a value which is, on deeper analysis, not inimical to or a fetter on freedom of expression: is it actually a necessary and vital aspect of freedom of expression? Or should we maintain the straightforward and generally held view that the two are wholly distinct, indeed often in conflict?
3. These are all difficult questions. They go to the heart of issues concerning Read the rest of this entry »

The Right Honourable Lord Justice Leveson delivered a speech titled PRIVACY & THE INTERNET, to the Communications Law Centre, University of Technology Sydney last Friday.

It is worth reprinting (absent footnotes). It provides:

(1) Introduction
1. Can I start by thanking the Communications Law Centre at UTS for the invitation to attend and speak at this important Seminar? I am delighted to be here.
2.I doubt that it comes as a surprise to anyone to learn that I have spent the last 17 months engaged in an Inquiry in connection with the culture, practices and ethics of the press in the United Kingdom. My Report, which with an Executive Summary, runs to over 2,000 pages was published on 29 November – just over a week ago – and already a great deal of water has passed under the bridge in connection with it. It may be some of you are hoping that I will elaborate or take you behind the scenes of the Inquiry. I am afraid that you are going to be disappointed. When I launched the Report which must be read in the context of the Terms of Reference for the Inquiry, I said this:
I believe that the Report can and must speak for itself; to that end, I will be making no further comment. Nobody will be speaking for me about its contents either now or in the future.
3. I should explain Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s Age, in New law could prevent invasions of privacy: Greens,

The Australian Privacy Commissioner has released a Guide to information security.

It is a comprehensive document.  It is worth extracting some of the opening passages such the “The purpose of the guide” which  provides:

This guide provides guidance on the reasonable steps entities are required to take under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to protect the personal information they hold from misuse, loss and from unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure.
This guide is aimed at helping entities meet their Privacy Act obligations by:

• outlining Read the rest of this entry »

The Economist article Gone into the ether reports on a massive privacy breach with the hacking of tax records of every South Carolinians since 1998.  That is records of over 3 million individuals and 700,000 businesses.

The article provides:

HER hopes of joining a Romney administration now vanished, Nikki Haley, the Republican governor of South Carolina, is expected to announce next summer that she will seek a second term in 2014. But her chances may be crippled by the fact that, in October the news broke that an international computer hacker had stolen from the South Carolina Department of Revenue’s data base the tax records of every South Carolinian who has filed a state tax return online since 1998—3.8m individuals Read the rest of this entry »