December 2, 2013
The Washington Post reports (found here) on the death of Willis Ware, one of the great computer engineers. He presience was extraordinary in predicting the ubiquity of personal computers, the formation of social networks but also the negative privacy impacts of these innovations.
It provides:
Computer Read the rest of this entry »
December 1, 2013
The UK is looking to review the ISO27000 series standards for privacy.
The Department for Business and Innovation Skills issued a statement providing:
Businesses said that cyber security standards need to:
- be internationally-recognised
- promote Read the rest of this entry »
November 28, 2013
Public Books has reviewed a newly released book by Oxford University Press, Family Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain. It is an interesting review of the development of the concept of privacy from its original concepts to the modern cause of action.
The review provides:
October 10, 2013 — Family Secrets by Deborah Cohen injects the marrow back into two centuries of skeletons locked away in household closets. A leading historian of modern Britain and Europe, Cohen has put together a rollicking read through the hidden land of cultural morality and its fundamental institution, the family. A son who prefers lipstick to lip balm might bring little shame to the family name today, but Cohen takes it as her project to explain how the secrets of the 19th century have been transformed into questions of privacy in the 20th. The sources of Read the rest of this entry »
November 24, 2013
The Court of Appeal in Wolfe v Permanent Custodians [2013] VSCA 331 considered issues of duty to co operate in the context of a contractual relationship and unconscionability by a creditor in recovery proceedings against a defaulting mortgagor.
Permanent Custodians Ltd (“Permanent”) holds a first mortgage over a property in Pascoe Vale which secured a loan to Mr Wolfe and his former partner [1]. In 2008 there was default on the loan. In August 2009 Permanent obtained default judgment against Wolfe, a default judgment for the loan and for possession of the Property against his former partner and issued a warrant of possession. Eviction by the Sheriff was scheduled for the week commencing 4 December 2009 [4]. Wolfe entered into an arrangement, on terms set out in a letter from Permanent’s solicitors on 1 December 2009 (the “1 December 2009 arrangement”)[5].
Those terms were, at [6],relevantly:
November 15, 2013
The best job in journalism has to be editor of the Legal Affairs. It is made for lining up behind an issue and just letting loose with Read the rest of this entry »
October 23, 2013
In the itnews article Big data linked to inevitable privacy breaches raises the issue of data mining and de anonymisation. It went to the lengths of seeking comment from the Privacy Commissioner who said Read the rest of this entry »
October 16, 2013
The Royal Veterinary College has entered into an undertaking under the Data Protection Act 1998 as a result of a member of its staff losing data, passport images of six job applicants, stored on his/her personal camera in December 2012. At the time the College had no policy about how personal information stored for work should be looked after on personal devices.
The ICO’s media release (found here) relevantly provides:
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is warning organisations that they must make sure that their data protection policies reflect how the modern workforce are using personal devices for work.
With a YouGov survey earlier this year showing that 47% of all UK employees now use their smartphone, tablet PC or other portable device for work purposes there is a concern Read the rest of this entry »
October 14, 2013
The Supreme Court considered an urgent application for an interlucotury injunction in a privacy related matter in Candy v Bauer Media Limited [2013] NSWSC 979. The urgent application was made on 20 July 2013 with the decision made and reasons published that same day.
The plaintif, Holly Rachel Candy, is better known in Australia by her Maiden Name, Holly Valance. Sometime Soapie star who later developed a musical, and occasional movie, career. Now a celebrity in the UK married to a wealthy businessman. For those consumers of gossip magazines and celebrity websites this is almost trite. Nevertheless it is not knowledge that would be regarded as notorious and it does not seem to have made its way into the affidavit material with his Honour stating:
October 11, 2013
There are a few things predictable in the world; death, taxes and Read the rest of this entry »
October 9, 2013
Today the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner released the report on a survey conducted on the community attitudes to Privacy. The survey itself can be found here. The pdf version of the report can be found here.
The Section 4, containing the detailed findings, provides:
This study of community attitudes to privacy covered a number of key areas, namely:
- awareness of Federal privacy laws
- general attitudes towards privacy and personal information
- privacy problems Read the rest of this entry »