January 18, 2014
That the explosion of data, most recently big data, and its correspondingly inadequate regulation has prejudiced individual privacy rights is almost trite. On this theme The New Statesman’s Death by data: how Kafka’s The Trial prefigured the nightmare of the modern surveillance state considers Read the rest of this entry »
Cloud computing, or more accurately the storage of data in offshore servers (the cloud), is a significant issue or organisations and agencies in Australia. Australian Privacy Principle 8 specifically deals with the use of offshore entities storing, using or otherwise dealing with personal information.
The UK Information Commissioner has provided an overall commentary on cloud computing (found here). As an introduction it is not bad. The suggestions are good.
It provides:
There are an Read the rest of this entry »
January 16, 2014
Senator Fienstein, Democrat from California, is one of the most powerful and influential members of the US Senate. For those interested in the legislature taking some proactive steps to provide privacy protections from the excesses of drone usage it was perhaps fortuitous that someone used such a device to spy on her during a protest. Politico reports on her giving evidence during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in Dianne Feinstein spots drone inches from face.
It provides:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she once found a drone peeking into the window of her home — the kind of cautionary tale she wants lawmakers to consider as they look at allowing commercial drone use.
The California Democrat offered few details about the incident when speaking about it Wednesday afternoon, during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on drone policy where she appeared as a special witness. But she used the episode to implore lawmakers to “proceed with caution.”
Feinstein said she encountered the flying robot Read the rest of this entry »
January 14, 2014
Daniel Solove, a professor at George Washington University, is a leading authority on privacy. He has penned both academic tomes (eg Information Privacy Law) and immensely readable polemics on privacy (The future of reputation and Nothing to Hide). He is also a prolific blogger on both serious legal sites and the more general linked in.
One of his recent posts is 10 Reasons Why Privacy Matters which provides:
Why does privacy matter? Often courts and commentators struggle to articulate why privacy is valuable. They see privacy violations as often slight annoyances. But privacy matters a lot more than that. Here are 10 reasons why privacy matters.
1. Limit on Power
Privacy is a limit on government power Read the rest of this entry »
January 13, 2014
The Economist again considers the development of drones in the USA in Game of drones. As I have posted previously drone technology is moving along at an astounding speed with pressure for commercial use. That is currently not permitted but that restriction is probably going to disappear.
It provides:
DEEP in the bowels of the engineering building at Oklahoma State University, Ben Loh flips a switch on a remote control. A rotor starts whirring and a white sphere the size of a large beach ball rises. Mr Loh navigates it around the room, then lands it and rolls it across the floor.
The flying sphere Read the rest of this entry »
The ABC radio program, AM, reports in Huge hack of consumer data in the USA on a massive data breach involving Target over the Christmas period.
It provides:
TIM PALMER: It’s been described as the worst security breach of personal data in history and we may not yet know the full extent of it.
US retailer Target revealed over the weekend that the details of tens of millions more customers than first thought have been stolen in a massive hacking scandal, and now the upscale retailer Neiman Marcus says it’s been hacked too.
Security experts say Read the rest of this entry »
In Know your privacy rights the Privacy Commissioner has posted a reminder of the upcoming changes to the Privacy Read the rest of this entry »
January 12, 2014
The current edition of the New York Review of Books has a detailed and very readable article, How Your Data Are Being Deeply Mined, on data mining by business and the growing business of database marketing. The clear privacy concerns Read the rest of this entry »
In a fascinating, if somewhat technical for the non technical, post IOActive Labs Research very recently undertook an analyis on personal banking apps. The post is titled Personal banking apps leak info through phone and is found here. The research involved testing 40 home banking apps from the top 60 most influential banks in the world. The study involved banks in the Australian jurisdiction.
Some of the salient conclusions are:
40% of the audited apps did not validate the authenticity of SSL certificates presented. This makes them susceptible to Read the rest of this entry »
The International Consumer Electronics Show (“CES”) again delivers a story of technology having huge privacy implications. In Want to find a great deal? It’s looking for you, too the Washington Post reports on technology used by department stores to not only to use a person’s smartphone to track his/her movements but use other data from in it to sell.
The article provides:
Salvador Alejo was a man on a mission. Walking the floor at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, he used his phone and the event’s app to find nine spots that would earn him the digital badges he needed to finish a high-tech scavenger hunt.
But in this case, the scavenger hunt was looking for him, too.