In Privacy fears in bid to bolster laws for fight against cyber crime the Australian highlights the Governments review of cyber crime legal framework.  Australia is undergoing the same process that the President of the United States has forshadowed.  The problem in Australia is that the existing privacy regulatory structure which interfaces with the any notification law that might arise has incomplete coverage, is quite vague and not actively regulated (to date).  In that environment Read the rest of this entry »

That drones are causing regulators difficulties is trite. In the USA the Federal Aviation Authority has been working on regulations regarding the commercial use of drones for years.  In Australia the Read the rest of this entry »

In Wilson v Ferguson[2015] WASC 15 the West Australian Supreme Court, per Mitchell J, issued an injunction and awarded damages by way of equitable compensation against the Defendant in a claim brought in equity for the misuse of private information.

FACTS

The plaintiff met the defendant in May 2011. Both were employed at Cloudbreak and worked in the same crew [19].  They began to date as boyfriend and girlfriend in November 2012 and after a few weeks the plaintiff moved into the defendant’s home [20]. During their relationship they would send each other photographs of a sexual nature depicting each other naked or partly naked [22] with the defendant initiating the exchange. The defendant also took explicit photographs of the plaintiff with her knowledge and consent [22]  and she also used her mobile phone to take videos of herself nude and, on at least one occasion, engaging in sexual activity [23].

Some time after the videos were taken, the plaintiff Read the rest of this entry »

The Economist in Your money or your data highlights the increasing use of ransomware which compounds a data breach. The unauthorised access of personal/business information is bad enough but Read the rest of this entry »

In Think of a number and double it  the Economist, in its usual precise and concise fashion, highlights the major public policy challenge of increased data breaches by hacking, a lack of information as to the size of the problem and inadequate regulation in the form of comprehensive and coherent mandatory data breach notification laws.  Data breaches and the use of ransomware are on the rise.  The problem is Read the rest of this entry »

The Executive branch of the US Government, usually called the President, previously mooted the need for improved data breach notification laws at the Federal level in the wake of the Sony hack.

In today’s State of the Union the President provided Read the rest of this entry »

The UK information Commissioner’s Office has entered into an undertaking with the  shoe retailer Office as a result of a data breach through a hacking attack of Officer’s website.  This resulted in data of over a million customers being exposed.  The breach exposed poor data security practices including unencrypted data base, a patchy record of penetration testing, a deficient privacy policy and poor staff training.  As is common with data breaches investigated by UK and US authorities an investigation of Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s PM program in Private details leaked after travel insurance company hacked reports on both a significant data breach involving the disclosure of personal information from Aussie Travel Cover and its terrible handling of the data breach, starting with failing to notify its customers that their personal information had been compromised, sometimes posted on line.  It is also Read the rest of this entry »

In the article Wearable Fitness Trackers Increase in Popularity and Raise Gathered Data’s Questions raises again the issue of data collection by the growing suit of fitness trackers, such as Fit Bit.  The collection of data of fitness trackers extends across the spectrum of personal information, from geo location to sensitive health information.  Connecting that data to an app on the phone opens up other Read the rest of this entry »

It is still the season to be reviewing the year that was.  And Wired’s assessment The Year’s Biggest Winners and Losers in Privacy and Security is both positive and negative from a privacy perspective, in America of course. It has been a mixed bag as far as Read the rest of this entry »