Peter A Clarke

The regulation and enforcement of privacy protection in Australia under the Privacy Act 1988 operates on a gatekeeper system.  But for applications for injunctive relief under section 98 the Privacy Commissioner controls all aspects of complaints to do with interferences with privacy, including whether he will consider a complaint.  An individual can not bring an action under the Privacy Act or any other legislation alleging an interference with his or her personal information or breach of privacy.  That is a severe faililng in the system.  But that is the system.  Given the system as it stands it is therefore incumbent upon either or both the Government to properly resource the Privacy Commissioner so that he may fulfill his statutory functions and the Act can have force or the Privacy Commissioner to become more efficient.  The Sydney Morning Herald in Long delays before privacy complaints assessed reports on the delay in dealing with complaints.

What is clear is that Read the rest of this entry »

The Canberra Times reports in Pharmacy sorry after records found at recycling centre on the dumping of hundreds of private medical records at a recycling centre in the Australian Capital Territory. Just on the known and admitted facts it is an eggregiuos interference with individuals’s privacy.

The article provides:

Monday’s Four Corners is not the first to highlight the impact to individuals privacy with the widespread use of tracking device and data mining.  But it is an excellent introduction to the problem  using real people doing ordinary activities.  It is worth a view here.

The transcript of the program provides:

KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: Digital age, welcome to Four Corners.

It’s hardly news in this era of information rich technology that privacy is gradually being eroded, or that our digital profiles are being Read the rest of this entry »

Privacy practitioners, legal or otherwise, know that the impact of the amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 when they  take effect on 12 March 2014 will be significant for many organisations.  From that date the Privacy Commissioner will have considerable powers regarding breaches of the Privacy Act including civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court for serious interference with personal information.  There has been some reportage of the impending changes but my observation is that many organisations have not properly understood their significance , the work required for many of them to become compliant and the consequences of not being compliant with the Act.  In today’s Australian Business Spectator there is a very good article, A rude privacy shock on the horizon,  on the impending change to the privacy regulatory regime and the lack of preparedness by many in the business community.  It is found here.  The Business Spectator is not given to wild speculation.

The article provides:

Australia’s about to get tougher new privacy laws. Businesses were given a year’s notice, but with half that time already gone, many haven’t even started thinking about it. They could be in for a rude shock — including fines of up to $1.7 million if they get it wrong.

Privacy experts have always said Read the rest of this entry »

Australian Privacy Principle 11 requires an organisation or agency to “..take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to protect the information from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Encryption has been one of the key means of protecting data, both in situ and, especially, in transit to another location.

In the Privacy Commissioner’s guidelines to data security he defines encryption as

Last week the 7.30 program did a piece on Google and privacy.  Or the lack of it with Google.  Google has had a long and inglorious tradition or prefering data harvesting over privacy considerations.  This story was caught Read the rest of this entry »

There are no shortage of announcements about governments and businesses using cloud server providers. The New South Wales State Government has announced that 60 providers have been registered to be part of a private marketplace for IT services that will be housed in a data centre which also houses the NSW IT Government IT (see article here) while the Queensland Government is accelerating its use of cloud computing (see article here).  The Victorian Government has made announcements regarding its take up of cloud computing (see  here) including the use of cloud computing by the Victorian Supreme Court for case base managment.  In Victorian Supreme Court gets cloud for case management Zdnet reported on 28 August 2013

The Victorian government today announced Read the rest of this entry »

According to a recent Atlantic article Of Course Teens Think About Privacy, They Have Parents more than 50 per cent of teen app users have avoided downloading privacy concerns because of privacy concerns.  The article provides:

More than 50 percent of teen app users have avoided downloading apps because of privacy concerns, according to a new Pew Internet Project and Berkman Center poll of teenagers.

Another 26 percent Read the rest of this entry »

Today the ALRC released its first newletter on its inquiry for the Invasions of Privacy inquiry.  No firm timetable has been set down but the general timeline is research and consultation until mid September, an issues paper in late September followed by a call for submissions and the release of a Discussion Paper in late February 2014.  Then the call for more submissions.

The newsletter provides:

I am very honoured to have been asked to lead the Inquiry into how the law should redress serious invasions of privacy in the digital age.  It is an enormous challenge but we are fortunate at the ALRC that our task builds upon much work that has already been done by law reform commissions and others in Australia.  Many of the issues have been considered in previous reports, while the legal protection of privacy has been extensively debated in academic literature, in the legal profession, in the media, in the broader community and in larger inquiries about the role and future of the media.  There has been active and recent judicial development of privacy law by the courts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand which provides valuable guidance on the application of legal principles.

The inquiry is asked by its Terms of Reference to design a statutory cause of action for serious invasions of privacy but it is also asked to consider, more widely, other innovative ways in which the law could prevent or redress serious invasions of privacy.

In Australia, protection of privacy is Read the rest of this entry »

On 1 April 201 3 in Drones to be used by environmental group for surveillance on private properties I posted on the acquisition of a drone by animal liberationists to spy on farmers.  It was a story well covered by the Australian press at the time.  I had no doubt that they would use the drones for that purpose.  Hardly surprising given the use to which drones have been put overseas and the lack of controls in place against such behaviour.

The ABC Landline program in Sky Wars  and Animal Liberation activists launch spy drone to test free-range claims reports that the animal liberationists have done just what they said they would do.  The focus of the story Read the rest of this entry »