Peter A Clarke

The Australian in Australians flock to VPNs to avoid data retention reports on consumers response to the Government’s data retention plans.  It is interesting to see how the market responds to government proposals – when they are made public.  It is Read the rest of this entry »

The Age reports in Australian teen uncovers security flaw in PayPal the continuing role of a white hat hacker in showing up flaws in the Paypal website which potentially allowed a hacker to by pass its two factor authentication system.  Unfortunately Read the rest of this entry »

According to a survey of 2,000 US consumers found that 44% will not use mobile banking services and 48% will not use billing payment apps. In a similar survey in the UK the figures are even starker with 53% not being prepared to use mobile banking services, half avoiding money transfer apps and 24% not feeling safe shopping on their handsets.  That apps are causing concern for consumers should not come as a surprise.  The weaknesses of privacy protection in apps are Read the rest of this entry »

The Safe Harbor Framework between the USA and Europe purporting to ensure that data from the EU regarding its citizen’s personal information would be handled in a manner consistent with EU privacy and data collection regulations has always been a difficult child.  It continues to be a troubled adolescent as evidenced by the complaint filed by the Center for Digital Democracy with the Federal Trade Commission regarding the operation of 30 companies.  In its public announcement CDD Files Complaint on U.S./EU Safe Harbor for Data Privacy at FTC/ Filing Reveals Failure of U.S. Agreement to Protect European Privacy it Read the rest of this entry »

The Harvard Business Review has recently conducted an interview with 2 Oxford academics, David Upton and Sadie Creese on a recent paper they wrote titled The Danger from Withinwhich will be published in the September edition of the magazine.   It is particularly prescient given Read the rest of this entry »

One aspect of data protection that defies an easy, if any, technological response is the role staff play in the leakage of data from an organisation.  Staff can be responsible for a data leakage for a range of reasons; storing personal information on BYODs which are lost or stolen, being caught by a sophisticated phishing attack, accidentally or, out of ignorance, providing personal information in breach of the Privacy Act.  And then there is the problem of data theft by staff, for revenge or profit.  Two recent articles highlight the problem, Restaurant staff ‘stole bank card details’, Medical worker stole patient identities, committed credit card fraud, Bergen prosecutor saysand Former Georgia deputy sentenced in identity theft plot. Under the Australian Privacy Principles it is necessary to take reasonable steps to protect personal information.  That includes Read the rest of this entry »

The Australian has something of a schizophrenic approach to privacy.  Mention a statutory (or any other) right to privacy and the paper reaches into its archives and dredges up another piece against the proposition.  And if it is really hackneyed and cliched, put it in the Legal Affairs Section.  High dudgeon a plenty but not much in the way of analysis.  But then the paper does run some quite good pieces on data protection. For example in Defending your data is not a bad piece on protecting privacy.  It is Read the rest of this entry »

Wired in The Gyroscopes in Your Phone Could Let Apps Eavesdrop on Conversations reports on findings whereby apps can access to a smartphone’s  gyroscopes and use them as microphones to overhear conversations.  And with Android phones there is no way for users to deny the apps access to such sensors data.  The privacy implications are Read the rest of this entry »

In a continuing series the Privacy Commissioner has, today, released a video titled What can I do about my neighbour’s security camera?

It is found Read the rest of this entry »

The piece ACTE members’ data stolen by hackers  reports that the data of all members of the ACTE on 11 August 2014.  Interestingly the Association responded very promptly about the data breach, both to the authorities and to the public generally.  It is a very different attitude to Read the rest of this entry »