Peter A Clarke

As far as data breaches go 2015 was a banner year.  The list of breaches is long.  The amount of personal information accessed was significant, with the breach of the Office of Personal Management being the biggest in US history, involving  theft of the personally identifiable information of some 21.5 million current and former federal employees and Read the rest of this entry »

The story about the Jamie Briggs being sacked for inappropriate behaviour with a public servant in a Hong Kong Bar has segued into a story about the publication, and republication of a photograph of that public servant into the media.  The issue is now being described as a breach of privacy.

And it is. As described in Jamie Briggs photo leak a ‘gross breach of privacy’.  The problem is Read the rest of this entry »

Slate in 2015 Was the Year of the Drone does a very good breezy, summation of the impact of drones Read the rest of this entry »

The Privacy Act 1988 was amended by the the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Privacy Amendment Act).  The changes commenced on 12 March 2014. The reforms:

• created a single set of Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) applying to both Australian Government agencies and the private sector. These principles replaced the Information Privacy Principles and National Privacy Principles.
• introduced more comprehensive credit reporting for consumer credit.
• strengthened the functions and powers of the Australian Information Commissioner to resolve complaints, use external dispute resolution services, conduct investigations and promote compliance
• created new provisions on privacy codes and the credit reporting code, including codes that are binding on specified agencies and organisations.

For those privacy practitioners the general level of compliance with the amendments to the Privacy Act has been poor.

A recent example that came to my attention was Read the rest of this entry »