August 31, 2015
The Straits Times in Call to mandate reporting of data breaches opines on the need for mandatory reporting. The Straits Times is not a campaigning paper by any means and ruffling government feathers is not in its DNA. Quite the opposite. The muted arguments against Read the rest of this entry »
August 30, 2015
The Wall Street Journal in Rogue drones a growing nuisance across the U.S. and today’s FAA records detail hundreds of close calls between airplanes and drones highlights Read the rest of this entry »
August 27, 2015
The combination of being topical, mildly controversial and somewhat witty usually means a time poor journalist will often abandon too much in the way of analysis when doing an opinion piece on a recent event. The Age’s article today titled When privacy goes out the window and into the Twitterverse handsomely illustrates that very point. Glib and superficial Read the rest of this entry »
When, or even if, the Privacy Commissioner exercises his powers under the Privacy Act in relation to poor privacy policies and standards it could do worse than consider some of the US Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) litigation as well as ACCC cases. That would require the Privacy Commissioner to do that which he has steadfastly refused or failed to do to date.
The FTC has had a very significant win in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Federal Trade Commission v Wyndom Worldwide Corporation & ors. The Court of Appeal has Read the rest of this entry »
August 25, 2015
The Privacy Commissioner announces an investigation into the Ashley Madison data breach.
The statement Read the rest of this entry »
August 21, 2015
The Attorney General, George Brandis, today announced the reappointment of Timothy Pilgrim as Australian Privacy Commissioner. The appointment is for 12 months from 19 October 2015. The timing is Read the rest of this entry »
August 20, 2015
Security Asia reports on a Websense survey of Australian IT professionals in Data breach penalties gain overwhelming support from Australian IT: survey. It is not counter intuitive Read the rest of this entry »
August 18, 2015
Proper enforcement by privacy regulators is critically important to establishing a culture of privacy compliance. There are also strong public policy reasons to ensure that the privacy laws are not ignored. The Federal Trade Commission in the United States has been quite assertive in using the limited powers it has to ensure that businesses do not mislead on privacy protections used or privacy enhancing products that are sold. The UK Information Commissioner’s office has also been quite rigorous in taking action for privacy breaches. Unfortunately the Australian Privacy Commissioner has adopted an entirely different approach. He has been restrained to the point of timid. Perhaps worse When action has been taken the outcome has been anaemic.
The ICO has fined the Money Shop the swinging sum of £180,000 for loss of data due to Read the rest of this entry »
August 4, 2015
There are few constants in the privacy sphere in Australia. One is a privacy breach by a telco. When it comes to privacy breaches telcos are frequent fliers. Itnews reports in Sensis publishes hundreds of silent numbers online on residential customers having their unlisted numbers published in the White pages online. Last October the Privacy Commissioner Read the rest of this entry »
August 3, 2015
The UK Supreme Court has granted Google leave to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision in Google v Vidall Hall & ors. The Court of Appeal decision is a significant advance in the development of the privacy related actions, from Read the rest of this entry »