In  NY court upholds conviction for video of neighbor the New York Times reports on a decision on that State’s Court of Appeals consideration of the operation of unlawful video surveillance law.

It provides:

The transition of drone technology from military to civilian usage occurred some time ago (in technology time measurement).  Its use is becoming more and more ubiquitous in its commercial use.  In Journalism gets into the act as drones capture floods, protests and wars the Guardian looks at the use of drones in journalism reportage.

The article, absent video footage, provides:

There have been a steady but not overwhelming number of stories in the broadsheet press (including the Australian Financial Review) regarding the impending changes to the Privacy Act.  In the Australian’s New principles offer a point of difference the impact of the changes are again highlighted.  The impact of this fairly muted publicity has been such that within the business community there is only a reported 50% compliance rate at this stage.  That is a concern.  The other concern Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who has been part of a big organisation when it moves to new premises knows how complex and difficult it can be.  Not only does each worker’s files have to be secured and furniture and computer equipment marked but the organisations myriad other stores of documents, records not to mention the more prosaic items from the tea room and the bosses drinks cabinet have to be marked, packed, moved and unpacked in vaguely the right place in the new premises.  Things can go awry when the planning is defective and the execution is sloppy.  As the Compensation Agency Northern Ireland (“CANI”), an administrative unit of the Department of Justice, discovered when it lost control of a mass of sensitive files left in a filing cabinet which it had sold at auction.  Net effect was a £185,000 monetary penalty notice issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office on 14 January 2014 (found here).

FACTS

CANI moved offices from Royston House in February 2012.  It decided to sell  any marketable furniture surplus to requirements at auction [4]. A locked four drawer filing cabinet was then taken out of storage in Royston House, without  its contents being checked,  sent to a shared storage room used by CANI to temporarily store all kinds of office furniture prior to its disposal. It was provided to a local auctioneer for a valuation, again without checking its contents. Apparently the key to the filing cabinet had been mislaid [5]. On 12 March 2012 it was  transported to the local auction and sold to a buyer.  The buyer then forced the lock and discovered that it contained official looking papers dating from the mid 1970’s to 2005.  The Police were called who took possession of the papers and returned them to CANI [6].

The official papers contained

• a limited amount of confidential, ministerial advice; and

• highly sensitive personal data Read the rest of this entry »

Itnews in Commissioner to launch privacy guidance next week reports that the Privacy Commissioner will relase its guidance on amendments to the Privacy Act.  If the draft guidelines provide any indication the focus is on the operation of the Australian Privacy Principles.

The article provides:

Having compliance on your agenda isn’t enough, says commissioner.

Pilgrim said the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) would also Read the rest of this entry »

In one calendar month the amendments to the Privacy Act take effect.  For those organisations covered by the Act and non compliant the impact could be significant.  The Commissioner will have powers Read the rest of this entry »

The Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK has produced 2 interesting reports of data maintenance by independent fostering and adoption agencies and general practitioners and primary healthcare providers.  The reports highlight positives and negatives  on data handling and security processes in each industry group.  The general practitioners and primary healthcare providers seem to have been more compliant than foster and adoption agencies.

Given the soon to be expanded role of the Privacy Commissioner and a more assertive regulation of data management and data security the findings by the ICO should be noted, studied and implemented. Each jurisdiction may have particular issues however many good data management and privacy enhancing processes are universal.

Regading data management, security and privacy issues warranting concern and requiring improvement the ICO made the following comments:

• highly sensitive Read the rest of this entry »

In a constantly changing world there are a few certainties.  One is that the Victoria Police LEAP database will continue to be abused with personal information of Victorians accessed without authorisation and, occasionally (or more often), leaked to those who find such information invaluable; criminals, private investigators and unscrupulous debt collectors to name just a few usual suspects.  In Cops still using LEAP database to snoop on people the Herald Sun today reports that the more things stay the same the more things stay the same. Breaches of the LEAP database has previously been reported by Read the rest of this entry »

SBS radio has recently had a program  on the impact of the new amendments to the Privacy Act on 12 March 2014 in Do new privacy protection laws go far enough?

The points made are familiar to those who practice in the privacy sphere, so to speak.  The changes are far from comprehensive and a selective adoption of the Australian Law Reform Commissioner report.  Very much a curate’s egg – good in parts.  The Act will remain inadequate but if properly and effectively regulated it should should dramatically improve privacy protection in so far as it covers the handling of personal information. The current Privacy Commissioner is quite active.  Far more active than his predecessors. But now he has real enforcement powers and a business environment that is only partially compliant (and hardly likely to be in any better shape before 12 March) the real test is how he uses those powers.

It provides:

While millions Read the rest of this entry »

Phones, cameras and the ubiquitous USB stick pose a real and growing problem for organisations trying to maintain data security.  The storage of data on those devices as well as photocopiers can easily become a data breach if they are not wiped clean when decommissioned.  The growing phenomana of BYODs and the development of the internet of things makes this problem as big a data risk as a hacking attack.

The UK Information Commissioner’s office has provided some helpful hints on how to deal with personal information left on mobile devices in their now many incarnations with Deleting your data from computers, laptops and other devices.While the ICO goes through the various options if an organisation is upgrading its mobiles or laptops serious consideration should be given to Read the rest of this entry »