The Data-Sharing Dilemma
Who gets to use public sector data, for what purposes, and under what conditions? Whose data is it anyway? That is the debate at the heart of a proposal now being put forward by the Australian...
View ArticleLocation, location, location: online or offline, privacy matters
One of the key findings of the OAIC’s latest Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey is that 62% of Australians are uncomfortable with their location being tracked through their mobile or web...
View ArticleWhat’s in store for privacy law in Australia?
The road to law reform is often long, and in the case of the Australian Privacy Act this latest iteration will prove no exception. In October 2020 the Australian government released an Issues Paper to...
View ArticleDesign jam leaves customers in a privacy pickle
A recent determination by the OAIC in the Flight Centre case demonstrates the potential to cause privacy harm when personal information is recorded and stored inappropriately. In that case a free-text...
View ArticleRepresentative redress required to mop up after asylum seeker data breach
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s recent determination in ‘WP’ and Secretary to the Department of Home Affairs highlights the traction that can be gained through a representative...
View ArticleHow to earn your social licence: the role of trust in project design
If you’re asking if your customers trust you, you’re asking the wrong question. Privacy risk management is not just about legal compliance, but about ensuring that you can meet your customers’...
View ArticleFor all the privacy officers caught in the middle of a tug of war
Oh, privacy advisers, we hear your pain. No matter whether you work in government or the private sector, your organisations will no doubt be keen to maximise the benefits from your information assets,...
View ArticleNot too much identity technology, and not too little
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released the first of a series of design documents concerning digital proof of COVID-19 vaccination, as the start of a process to standardise digital versions of...
View ArticleCat or carrot? Assessing the privacy risks from algorithmic decisions
Artificial intelligence (AI), and its impacts on privacy and other human rights, have been the focus of much attention in the past two months. From the European Commission considering a new...
View ArticleWhat covid apps can teach us about privacy, utility and trust in tech design
The release last week of the report into the first 12 months of the federal government’s beleaguered ‘COVIDSafe’ app got me thinking about the importance of Privacy by Design – and in particular, how...
View ArticlePrivacy and gender: what to ask, when and why
Hey, before we start, can I just ask: are you male, female or other? Are you bristling at even being asked? Collecting accurate data on gender can, when done appropriately, be a key way to ensure a...
View ArticleBetween 7 and 11 lessons you can learn from the latest OAIC privacy case
A case involving facial recognition technology and customer satisfaction surveys offers plenty of lessons in how privacy law applies to Australian businesses. In June 2020, the 7-Eleven chain of...
View ArticlePrivacy law reform in Australia – the good, the bad and the ugly
On 25 October 2021 the Australian government released a Discussion Paper crammed full of proposals to amend the national privacy law, as well as a Bill intended to progress certain reforms ahead of the...
View ArticleWhy can’t Aunty get the ABCs of privacy right?
The ABC says it is “committed to protecting your privacy”. So why are they giving our data to Facebook and Google? The ABC Privacy Policy was updated in late 2021, to “reflect some changes to the way...
View ArticleShould birds of a feather be FLoC’d together?
The demise last week of FLoC is not the end of the story for Google’s plans to prop up surveillance-based advertising once cookies are phased out. As a replacement for third party tracking cookies,...
View ArticleBig Tech, Individuation, and why Privacy must become the Law of Everything
Anorexia. Violent extremism. Holocaust denial. Anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. Gambling addiction. Hate speech. False claims about stolen elections. Genocide. You might not think of these as...
View ArticleOAIC determinations shed light on when data is regulated as ‘personal...
Recent caselaw demonstrates that privacy laws reach further than some organisations might expect. Introduction: the identifiability test Most information privacy and data protection laws around the...
View ArticleWould you like fries with that? A quick guide to notice and consent in...
When consumer advocacy body CHOICE last month went public with its investigation into the use of facial recognition by major Australian retailers, the public reaction was swift – and negative. No...
View ArticleThe seven habits of effective Privacy Impact Assessments
There is something magical about the number seven. The seven deadly sins, the seven dwarfs, the seven year itch, those plucky child detectives who formed the Secret Seven, and the barn-raising dance...
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