Peter A Clarke

The Age has run a piece on privacy litigation in the United States in Is this Silicon Valley’s most hated man? It is as much a bio on the firm Edelson PC and its principal, Jay Edelson as an expose on privacy litigation but it does provide some insight on how class actions in the privacy sphere operate in the United States in this space.  Both regulation and enforcement by authorities and the ability of classes or individuals to bring a cause of action relating to interferences with privacy are important means of ensuring there is some integrity in the handling of data by organisations and data. Poor regulation and/or overly restrictive rights of action will not deter poor and negligent behaviour, giving rise to a poor privacy culture and lax data handling practices.  Heavy handed regulation and Read the rest of this entry »

The Daily Mail in Your pension secrets sold to conmen for five pence: On eve of pensions revolution, an exposé that will horrify every family in the land reports on a likely illegal sale of pension information without the owner’s knowledge.  It is the type of action which data laws are designed to prevent.  Not surprisingly the Information Commissioner’s Office Read the rest of this entry »

As if it were necessary to say that data security was a matter of proper corporate governance the Australian Security and Investment Commission (“ASIC”) has made that abundantly clear with its Report 429 Cyber Resilience: Health Check.  As far as ASIC is concerned it has a role to ensure that companies maintain proper cyber security standards. This is a very important development because Read the rest of this entry »

The Privacy Commissioner has announced the amendment of the Australian Privacy Principles (the “APPs”).  They are Read the rest of this entry »