Peter A Clarke https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html US Federal Trade Commission takes action against Disney and Apitor for unlawful collection of children’s personal information Cyber Security fails can have painful financial consequences. In the US Healthplex settles suit and pays $2 million for cyber security breach Federal Trade Commission fines Avast for deceptive privacy claims and distributes $15.3 million to affected users Report of 2025 Global Privacy Network sweep highlights problems with websites and apps used by children The Privacy Commissioner releases exposure draft of the Children’s Online Privacy Code today Federal Trade Commission takes action against Match & OK Cupid for sharing personal information with third parties Safetrac allegedly installed surveillance without staff agreement National Institute of Science and Technology publishes ‘Lightweight Cryptography’ Standard to protect small networked devices from cyber attack iiNet hacked with data relating to 280,000 customers affected Gmail passwords included in data breach involving 183 million accounts National Institute of Science and Technology releases revisions of its Privacy Control Catalog in response to a Presidential Executive Order. The purpose is to improve software update and patch releases Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner releases the investigation into use of surveillance by the University of Melbourne during a student protest in 2024. The University breached Information Privacy Principle 1.3 Privacy Commissioner finds that KMart’s use of facial recognition technology breached the Privacy Act and was unlawful Signal Foundation sounds alarm on AI agents invading privacy Privacy Commissioner issues new guidance to Social Media Platforms regarding age limits Data breach access names and email addresses of Victorian students Fiig Securities fined $2.5 million for cyber security failures in first action against financial services licensee for this sort of breach Scattered spiders, Lapsu$ and Shiny Hunters combine to threaten Qantas with exposure of stolen data unless a ransom is paid by Friday Google ordered to pay $425 million in privacy class action lawsuit in the United States of America National Institute of Science and Technology releases report on Multi-Factor Authentication for Criminal Justice Information Systems: Implementation Considerations for Protecting Criminal Justice Information Google settles You Tube lawsuit which alleged it interfered with children’s privacy by collection of personal information without consent. The sum of the settlement $30 million The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes guidance for operational technology owners and operators to create and maintain asset inventories and risk management. French regulator fines Google $379 million for cookie consent violations Pseudonymised data and whether it is personal information. The Court of Justice of the European Union in European Data Protection Supervisor v Single Resolution Board finds that it is not personal data in all cases. Relevant for Australia Privacy Commissioner starts 2026 with compliance sweep of privacy policies of 60 entities in the rental & property, chemists and pharmacists licensed venues, car rentals & car dealerships and pawnbrokers & second hand dealer industries UK Information Commissioner fines a password manager 1.2 million pounds for data breach South Australian barristers’ chambers hacked and data listed on ransomware leak site The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (General Federal Law) Rules 2025 commences 1 September 2025. As do new Practice Directions. This Monday. Sam and Brittany Groth have issued proceedings against the Herald and Weekly Times alleging a breach of the statutory tort of serious invasion of privacy. National Institute of Science and Technology release important report on Ransomware Risk Management Groth v Herald & Weekly Times (VID 1130/2025) First directions hearing. Orders made for interlocutory hearing on 6 November 2025 Kurraba Group Pty Ltd & Anor v Williams [2025] NSWDC 396: New South Wales Court considers statutory tort of privacy at interlocutory stage Safetrac recording conversations of employees shows how privacy and surveillance laws are misunderstood. There is more to this story than meets the eye. Australian Information Commissioner releases the its annual report. Data breaches in January – June 2025 . Five hundred and thirty two notifications Interest in Genea data breach class action growing Ex Prime Minister’s complaint about cyber attacks on Australian companies has merit but much could have been done earlier, when he had the power to do so. How hard is it to delete personal information held by companies on line. It can be very and unnecessarily hard. With Salesforce failing to pay Scattered Lapsus$Hunters ransom 150 gigabytes of personal information stolen from Qantas has been dumped onto the dark web. The damage and danger of revenge porn and the ongoing drama of the Latham v Matthews fight News South Wales Reconstruction Authority suffers significant data breach. Third party use of AI partly to blame National Institute of Science and Technology publishes Methodology for Characterizing Network Behavior of IoT Devices & Supply Chain Traceability: Manufacturing Meta-Framework Will the second tranche of Privacy law reform measures be introduced into Federal Parliament this term? It would be a reasonable assumption that it will. The Government is beginning to make soundings about reform. Privacy Commissioner of Canada issues guidelines for the use of biometric information following New Zealand Privacy Commissioner issuing biometrics code The Australian Cyber Security Centre releases guidance on managing cryptographic keys and secrets Federal Trade Commission writes letter to technology companies warning them against censoring or weakening data security of Americans at request of foreign powers. Meanwhile the UK government says it will not seek back doors for programs The Game Meats Company of Australia Pty Ltd v Farm Transparency International Ltd [2025] FCAFC 104 (13 August 2025); constructive trust imposed over copyright of video images taken by trespasser. Gummow and Hayne vindicated American Express is found to have major data flaws after an investigation by the Privacy Commissioner UK Information Commissioner reprimands UK Post Office over data breach relating to the Horizon IT scandal Legal Practice Board suffers data breach, notifying data breach victims