Peter A Clarke

The High Court will hand down its decision in Willmott Growers Group Inc v. Willmott Forests Ltd (Receivers and Managers Appointed) (In Liquidation) In its capacity as manager of the unregistered managed investment schemes listed in Schedule 2 and Ors this Wednesday 5 December 2013.

For those, like myself, who practice in the corporations and insolvency area it is a long awaited decision with significant ramifications.

The High Court transcript provides:

MR G.T. BIGMORE, QC: May it please the Court, I appear Read the rest of this entry »

The Washington Post reports  (found here) on the death of Willis Ware, one of the great computer engineers.  He presience was extraordinary in predicting the ubiquity of personal computers, the formation of social networks but also the negative privacy impacts of these innovations.

It provides:

Computer Read the rest of this entry »

The UK is looking to review the ISO27000 series standards for privacy.

The Department for Business and Innovation Skills issued a statement providing:

Today the ACMA commences a campaign on the usage of smart devices, especially phones, by youth and the consequences of oversharing. ACMA has set up a cybersmart website found here.

The media release (found here) relevantly provides:

It’s something all too obvious to parents of teenagers: how much life has changed in the last three years, let alone since they were teens. And with smartphones now in most teens’ pockets, using Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and hashtags, the ins and outs of social media can be Read the rest of this entry »

Public Books has reviewed a newly released book by Oxford University Press, Family Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain.  It is an interesting review of the development of the concept of privacy from its original concepts to the modern cause of action.

The review provides:

The report UN backing universal privacy right highlights the concern and frustration over the phone tapping scandal arising out of the Snowden revalations.  Germany and Brazil were particularly annoyed and sponsored the motion.  It will of course have little practical effect.

The UN General Assembly’s human rights committee has unanimously adopted a resolution sponsored by Brazil and Germany to protect the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance, following months of reports about US eavesdropping abroad.

The symbolic resolution, Read the rest of this entry »

Today I delivered a paper on Privacy and health records.

The topics I covered were:

Patient privacy and confidential record management Read the rest of this entry »

For those interested in gauging the approach of the Privacy Commissioner to his use of soon to be newly acquired enforcement powers his Read the rest of this entry »

The Federal Court Rules 2011 have been amended to support the first stage of the implementation in the Federal Court of an electronic court file.

The amendments will make relatively minor changes to such things as the use of stamps and seals; preparation and lodging of documents; redacting, amending and removing documents; and producing documents for inspection or in compliance with a subpoena.

According to the notification from the Fedeal Court the the Amendment Rules will:

1. amend subrules 2.01(2) and (3) and paragraph 39.35(1)(b) and Schedule 1 to clarify that either the seal of the Court (for convenient processing electronically) or the stamp of a District Registry (for convenient processing in paper) can be used;

2. insert new rules Read the rest of this entry »

The Itnews report on a speech by the Privacy Commissioner is Read the rest of this entry »