Hard or soft? The skills needed for a risk-based approach to privacy
This week I had the pleasure of attending a seminar on the Risk-Based Approach to Privacy. The keynote speaker was Richard Thomas, the former UK Data Protection Commissioner – although as he pointed...
View ArticleFree search, free speech, and the Right To Be Forgotten
Search engines are wondrous things. I myself use Google search umpteen times a day. I don’t think I could work or play without it anymore. And yet I am a strong supporter of the contentious “Right to...
View ArticleBradley Cooper’s taxi ride: a lesson in privacy risk
Hollywood heartthrob Bradley Cooper is a bad tipper. That was the conclusion drawn by media – though denied by his PR rep – when data about 173 million New York taxi trips became public. But I drew a...
View ArticleThat’s a wrap: Privacy Awareness Week 2015
I think I am suffering indigestion, but it’s not from the delicious breakfast served at the opening event to mark Privacy Awareness Week this year. It’s more like mental indigestion, as my brain tries...
View ArticleWhere’s Wally? Geolocation and the challenge of privacy protection
Those pesky little digital breadcrumbs are starting to catch up with us. A recent article in Wired noted that it’s not just your telephony provider who knows where you are – plenty of smartphone apps...
View ArticlePrivacy in the age of the algorithm: a primer in ethics for using Big Data
Brrr, winter is here! Time to crack open a red to enjoy with a lovely rich home-cooked lasagna. Except hang on – your pasta-buying habits have you marked down as a poor car insurance risk. You’d better...
View ArticleMan made software in His own image
In 2002, a couple of Japanese visitors to Australia swapped passports with each other before walking through an automatic biometric border control gate being tested at Sydney airport. The facial...
View ArticleIs Barbie the new Big Brother? The Internet of Things is here
Is it just me, or are things starting to get genuinely creepy around here? I’m not just talking about the trailer for the new TV show Humans, which looks like a gripping piece of sci-fi drama set in...
View ArticleLet’s take a ride on the privacy law reform merry-go-round
So, I have been approached by a NSW Parliamentary committee to make a submission on whether or not we need a statutory cause of action for serious invasions of privacy. My first thought was: why...
View ArticleThere’s more than one way to bake a pia
Although it is great to see Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) being discussed in mainstream media, the recent Lateline program on ABC TV was also depressing in its conclusion: that PIAs are not being...
View ArticleDon’t throw out the baby with the bath water on donor privacy
There is a debate going on in Victoria about when it is acceptable to override the wishes of someone who has explicitly refused their consent for their identity and information to be shared. Or in...
View ArticleCreepiness is in the eye of the beholder
Happy Halloween dear readers! As you carve your pumpkins, decorate your house with plastic spiders and work on your scary costumes, it seems an apposite time to reflect on … creepiness. Privacy...
View ArticleA bridge too far: 85% of the world ignored at ‘international’ conference
Ah, Amsterdam. You can ride a bike, you can travel the canals by boat, you can walk around happily by yourself (ideally scoffing from a paper cone of hot frites doused in mayonnaise) or you can catch a...
View ArticleSmile! You’re on someone’s facial recognition database
Hooray, December! A time for work Christmas parties, end-of-year school concerts, days at the cricket and holidays at the beach. So many Instagram-worthy moments. But wait just a tinsel-hanging second...
View ArticleFind your friends … and then invade their privacy!
The highest court in Germany has ruled that Facebook’s “Find Friends” function is unlawful there. The decision is the culmination of legal action started in 2010 by German consumer groups, and confirms...
View ArticleHow Stephanie’s broken down car is undermining your privacy
We need to talk about Ben. Specifically, about Ben Grubb, the tech journo who triggered an on-going legal case, the resolution of which might yet either reinforce or undermine Australia’s privacy laws....
View ArticleWill the new Transborder principle become an April fool’s joke?
On 1 April, a new Transborder Disclosure principle will commence in NSW. The revised section 19(2) of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) (PPIPA), will – if it is interpreted...
View ArticleWhy you might want to become a Jedi Knight for this year’s Census
In the week before Christmas last year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics quietly trashed your privacy. We have only a few months to claim it back. In December 2015, the ABS announced its plans to...
View ArticleCash for data? Ownership of personal information not a solution
World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has given a speech in London, re-affirming the importance of privacy, but unfortunately he has muddied the waters by casting aspersions on privacy law....
View ArticleWoolly thinking & knotty problems: how to untangle the Disclosure rules
I think our privacy laws are too tough. (Collective gasp! An avowed champion of privacy rights thinks the laws are too tough??) Wait! No! I should clarify, before you think I have lost my mind and...
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