February 24, 2015
The World Today story Alleged hack of world’s largest SIM card manufacturer Gemalto could affect Australian mobiles highlights several currents running through the protection of data and privacy. The first is finding the best way to keep data secure. Technologically encryption is increasingly a minimum requirement. Privacy guidelines make it clear that encryption of key data is good privacy practice. However Read the rest of this entry »
February 16, 2015
The US Federal Aviation Authority (the “FAA”) has just released its long awaited rules on the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones to most. On the same day the US President has issued a directive on the use of drones which will place limits on surveillance. The combination of these two developments Read the rest of this entry »
February 13, 2015
The Privacy Commissioner has just posted his most recent speech, titled Privacy Governance to the iappANZ on 11 February 2015. The Commissioner’s prose tends to the general and intentions and directions, when voice, are couched in such opaque terms that it would be easier to Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this week the media became very animated by Samsung’s Smart TV. As part of its voice recognition facility it has ability to record, store, analyse and share conversations of users within range of the sets. The Samsung TV’s privacy policy makes specific reference to this facility. The reportage is quite sensational, with one of the most sensible being the AM’s Are new Smart TVs too smart for our own good?
But the emergence of the Internet of Things has long highlighted new and complicated privacy issues. The Federal Trade Commission highlighted this very recently in its very detailed and useful report, Internet of things; privacy & security in a connected world. The issue is less about snooping TVs but rather the growing ability of many household items to collect data including personal information, process it and for third parties to use it. This poses a regulatory challenge which is beginning to be considered though far from being met.
The transcript of the AM program Read the rest of this entry »
February 9, 2015
Drones are an immediate pressing problem for regulators. That, of course does not mean it is being the subject to rigorous and effective response.
The technology Read the rest of this entry »
In the United States the Federal Trade Commission has been vigorous in taking action against organisations who mislead and deceive in relation to their privacy policies. In Australia the Privacy Commissioner has issued guidelines regarding privacy policy including What to look for in a privacy policy, Guide to developing an APP privacy policy and Guide to developing an APP privacy policy — summary. He has not as yet taken enforcement action.
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office has recently taken very strong action against Google over its privacy policy with Google entering into an Undertaking under the Data Protection Act.
The media release setting out the facts and Read the rest of this entry »
February 8, 2015
On 5 December 2014 I posted on the settlement of charges by hte in a complaint against PaymentsMD and its former CEO, Michael Hughes. On 6 February 2015 the Federal Trade Commission (The “FTC”) approved final orders in the PaymentsMD Privacy case. The FTC is turning into as good a regulator on privacy related issues as the legislation permits. Far more effective than Australian and New Zealand regulators. In Australia Read the rest of this entry »
Anthem, one of the United States largest health insurers has been subject to a sophisticated cyber attack. Records of in excess of 80 million have been compromised. This makes it a huge data breach. It is reported in Millions of Anthem Customers Targeted in Cyberattack and Massive Anthem health insurance hack exposes millions of customers’ details which Read the rest of this entry »
February 6, 2015
Data breaches can attract litigation, both in the form of class actions but also individual claims arising out the unauthorised disclosure of health records. It can compound heavy reputational loss. The article LinkedIn’s Data Breach Settlement Moves Forward reports on the resolution of a lawsuit arising out of the 2012 breach of Linked In’s network. The tentative agreement of Read the rest of this entry »
There have been no shortage of lessons to be learnt from the the Sony Hack. Poor cyber security and systems layed the foundations for the hack attack. It was less to do with evil geniuses breaching an impenetriable defence and more to do with inadequate and compromised privacy infrastructure. There is more to be learnt from the hack, starting with who was responsible. The suspected origin of the attack has varied from, initially, North Korea to a disgruntled insider to, most recently, Russian as reported in Report Claims Russians Hacked Sony.
The other aspect of the Sony Hack has been the ever widening consequences of the breach. It acted as a Read the rest of this entry »