Peter A Clarke

The Guardian reports in Labor to introduce bill outlawing revenge porn that the Federal Opposition will be introducing a bill to criminalise the posting and distribution, or the threat to post or distribute, private images of a sexual nature without prior consent.  This odious practice has been labelled revenge porn because the perpetrators are partners or former partners do the posting and distribution or provide it to those who do.

The scope of the bill as described highlights the chronic piecemeal nature to regulating in this area. Why criminalise the behaviour without providing some civil recourse to victims?  Why focus only on Read the rest of this entry »

The Australian in Vodafone ‘hacked’ reporter’s mobile reports on, if correct, a very substantial privacy breach by a telco, to wit Vodafone, in accessing one of its customers phone records in 2011. The customer, Natalie O’Brien, is a Fairfax journalist who ran a story, Vodafone mobile records leaked earlier in 2011 about a data breach by Vodafone. Unfortunately telcos have a dreary record when it comes to poor privacy practices and are notable in Read the rest of this entry »

In the United States there is some form of legislative structure developing regulating the use of drones in built up areas.  As is the way it is being done on a state by state basis.  In Australia the States have looked to the Commonwealth while the Commonwealth looks at its shoes.  In the aviation sphere the Commonwealth has Read the rest of this entry »

Timothy Pilgrim in a speech Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — Update delivered on 1 September 2015 to the New South Wales Government Solicitors conference in Sydney gave some insight into the role  and future of the Office of the Information Commissioner.  It is a subject of some debate and Read the rest of this entry »

Following from my earlier post yesterday about Fortesque using drones in the Pilbara Itnews reports in Rio Tinto to lean more heavily on drones  on Rio Tinto’s use of drones beyond mine monitoring into its wider operations such as inspection of infrastructure. It is also contemplating using drones for Read the rest of this entry »

Damages for privacy related breaches is a vexed issue. What is the loss is often raised by defendants even if the breach is established.  The measure of damages is an area of development in the United Kingdom. In a recent Federal case of Seungtae Kim v. BMW Financial Services a jury awarded the plaintiff $250,000 for creditworthiness loss, $150,000 for emotional distress and a civil penalty of $300,000 for violition of identity theft law. The case has Read the rest of this entry »

The Toronto Star reports in Hospital clerk pleads guilty to stealing, selling patient records about how a person in a relatively junior position was able to access, download and sell highly confidential personal information held in a hospital data base.  Hospitals are notorious for the poor privacy practices. There is often a lack of Read the rest of this entry »

The UK High Court in AMC & KLJ v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2015] EWHC 2361, per Laing J, granted an injunction in relation to a proposed story about an infidelity of a UK former sportsman.

FACTS

On the evening of Friday 31 July 2015 the solicitor Read the rest of this entry »

The use of drones in the mining sector has moved from the novelty to the mundane.  Drones have been used in mining surveys (amongst other surveys), as methane sniffing devices in fracturing operations and open cast mining. So it is not earth shattering news that Fortesque Metals Group is Read the rest of this entry »

The Straits Times in Call to mandate reporting of data breaches opines on the need for mandatory reporting.  The Straits Times is not a campaigning paper by any means and ruffling government feathers is not in its DNA.  Quite the opposite.  The muted arguments against Read the rest of this entry »