July 30, 2017
The Wired in Privacy Isn’t Dead. It’s More Popular Than Ever highlights what researchers and privacy practitioners have long known, that people do value their privacy and when given the opportunity will protect it. The Pew Research Center in the 2015 report titled Read the rest of this entry »
Confidence is critical for an economy to function properly. Traditionally that has meant that confidence that a legal system is impartial and efficient, confidence that contracts are enforceable and that confidence that property rights are secure from arbitrary confiscation. In the digital economy the other confidence is that data is secure, personal information is not misused and that electronic communication is free from intrusion and unrestrained surveillance.
In a recent Internet Society Survey on Policy issues in Asia Pacific 2017 the results show that there is a distinct lack of confidence in Read the rest of this entry »
For those with a long term interest and involvement in privacy and data security the danger of cyber attacks on utilities and vital infrastructure is well known. And to an extent it has come to pass, with Read the rest of this entry »
Parents seeking to protect the privacy of their children from the snapping shutters of papparazi have given rise to significant jurisprudence, notably the New Zealand decision of Hosking v Runting and Murray v Express Newspapers. The law has moved along in some common law jurisdictions, though not particularly well in Australia, where the jurisprudence is still mired in breach of confidence/misuse of private information claims in equity. Clunky and not as good as a proper tort of invasion of privacy.
In Europe, France in particular, the privacy laws are quite strict. It is therefore a little surprising that the BBC reports that a French Magazine, Voici, has published pictures of the Clooney’s infant twins taken by photographers who scaled a fence to enter private property and Read the rest of this entry »
July 27, 2017
The Fairfax press has run a legitimate, if breathless, report on fridges having the potential to turned into listening devices in Queensland police say fridges could be turned into listening devices. The context of the story is about parliamentary inquiry into surveillance powers. It touches on two neglected but potent developments; the new modes of surveillance, in this case using connected devices, and the expansion of the internet of things, with the attendant weakness with data security and privacy protections. It is a timely reminder of Read the rest of this entry »
July 26, 2017
The Supreme Court, per Randall AsJ, considered an application to set aside a statutory demand in Re Bendigo Central Pharmacy Pty Ltd [2017] VSC 419. The key issue was whether issues ultimately relied upon were raised in the Plaintiff’s initial affidavit, filed within 21 days of the statutory demand being served and the scope and operation of Graywinter affidavits.
The debt relied upon in the statutory demand Read the rest of this entry »
It is not too common that Sweden finds its itself as the victim of a massive data breach. It was an early implementer of data protection laws and generally has been seen as having a good system in place to protect personal information. As the itnews article Sweden exposed sensitive data on citizens, military personnel and the New York Times with Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage From Data Breach that maintaining proper data security is a constant challenge. It is likely to Read the rest of this entry »
July 23, 2017
Lloyds has published a report titled Counting the Cost where it estimates that of the potential economic impact of a hypothetical malicious hack on a cloud service provider, and attacks on vulnerable computer systems run by businesses around the world could be as high as $53bn and $28.7bn respectively. A cloud service disruption scenario, because of the uncertainty around aggregating cyber losses could result in losses as high as $121bn, or Read the rest of this entry »
The Victorian Court of Appeal in Culve Engineering Pty Ltd v Apollo General Engineering (Aust) Pty Ltd (in liq) [2017] VSCA 182 considered the scope and operation of Rules to permit a substitution order being made.
The third applicant, Sandra Cerrato, was the executrix of the deceased estate of her father, Rocco Cerrato who . Mr Cerrato died on 14 August 2014 [1]. Prior to and in 2010 Mr Cerrato was a director of the first applicant, Culve Engineering Pty Ltd (‘Culve Engineering’), the second applicant, Tena Denham Nominees Pty Ltd (‘Tena Denham’), and the first respondent, Apollo General Engineering (Aust) Pty Ltd (in liquidation) (‘Apollo’) [2]. Ms Cerrato was joined as a defendant to this proceeding in her capacity as executrix in substitution for her father by an order made by an associate judge on 18 September 2015. She and the other applicants unsuccessfully appealed that decision to a judge in the Trial Division [3].
Prior to 21 April 2010 Apollo carried on Read the rest of this entry »
July 20, 2017
It is almost embarrassing to say that data is big business. Personal information is the wheat that is separated from the digital chaff. The Federal Trade Commission issued a complaint against Blue Global Media in what was an egregious program of getting consumers to fill out loan applications and on selling that data, including personal information and sensitive information which in the US context includes social security number and credit card details, to parties willing to pay for leads. As is commonly the case the FTC Read the rest of this entry »