Privacy and technology go together like music and dance: it’s only when both work well together that the magic happens. But what about privacy in the age of big data, an era in which your every move has…
The rise in CCTV means many of us are under near constant observation, a trend that will only be exacerbated by the rise of drones.
Flickr/ogglog
In the late 1970s I found myself wandering the mostly deserted streets of East Berlin, having successfully negotiated Checkpoint Charlie and a horde of East German border guards. I remember commenting…
Newborn babies may soon be given genome-wide tests and the data placed on their e-health record.
sean dreilinger
By making it possible to screen for gene variants linked to a higher risk of disease, gene testing has the potential to transform the way we manage health. It opens up the possibility of routine screening…
Graph Search will allow users (and businesses) to pick out the information they want … assuming we let them in.
vincos/Flickr
Initial responses to Facebook’s newly announced Graph Search (a name only a software engineer could love) appear to be split into two main camps:
those who have celebrated the level of nuanced detail…
Instagram’s revised terms and conditions may or may not be good for your image.
Philippe Moreau Chevrolet
Instagram’s announcement yesterday of a new set of terms and conditions has elicited a backlash from many of its 100 million users, with many vowing to ditch the service before the changes take effect…
If someone got access to your personal information, wouldn’t you want to know?
subcircle/Flickr
In an age of Facebook, eBay and online banking, data privacy is becoming more important than ever before. The majority of Australians have personal information stored online with a range of organisations…
Facebook is no slouch at putting names to faces.
christoph_aigner
It may be time to move beyond Facebook’s assurance of its trustworthiness and specifically restrict the company’s use of face recognition. Changes within Facebook Europe would seem to suggest so.
For…
The ability of the police to collect images of protesters is set to be challenged in Victoria.
sidkid
Most of us value our privacy. But in Australia, despite recommendation after recommendation that we reform the law to protect citizens from serious invasions of privacy, there is often little protection…
Information gleaned from data mining is a prized delicacy in certain circles.
Philippe Put
Telstra representatives have this week admitted to collecting data for a new internet filtering product and sending this data to the USA office of Netsweeper Inc.
Netsweeper Inc, based near Toronto, Canada…
Census information is tightly protected by privacy law, so why do so many Australians hate and fear the census?
AAP
AUSTRALIA BY NUMBERS: Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the first batch of its 2011 census data. We’ve asked some of the country’s top demographers and statisticians to crunch the…
Trust in the media is at the heart of issues around Gina Rinehart, Fairfax and editorial independence.
AAP
Amid indications that Fairfax is going into the corporate death spiral – ongoing disinvestment resulting in smaller market share – we’re asking the wrong questions about the future of the Australian media…
There is much to like in the updated Privacy Act – but is it too early to cheer?
Flickr/Mikko Luntiala
British novelist E M Forster famously offered two cheers for democracy. We might say the same about the national Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill introduced into Parliament last week…
Genetic information should only be shared with full and informed consent.
Jack Fussell
Yesterday on The Conversation, Timothy Smith from the Florey Neurosciences Institute argued that in order to improve genetics research, we need free and open access to genetic information. But while the…
Should legislation be used to tame the search engine’s appetite?
COG LOG LAB
We all know Google has a history of privacy-related misdemeanors but a report in the Wall Street Journal last week
suggests the search giant hasn’t learn from its mistakes.
The report, about the findings…
Ever had the sense someone’s watching over your shoulder?
Nick Chill Photography
What if you used your smartphone, knowing you might be sharing certain information, but had no idea what exactly was being shared? Or why you might be sharing it?
If you knew someone could be recording…
The collection and potential uses of your data is back in the news again.
Saad Irfan
What can only be described as “growing consternation” has resulted from revelations by a developer, Trevor Eckhart, that a large number of mobile phones are secretly monitoring users’ actions on the phone…
Concerns that the national health survey is a manifestation of Big Brother are misplaced.
Cristiano Betta
The Australian Health Survey (AHS) has recently been in the news, with people expressing concern that a national health census is an egregious infringement of their right to privacy and a manifestation…
Unthink is positioning itself as a force of “emancipation”.
Unthink.com
On October 25, Unthink invited public beta users to put aside their YASNS (Yet Another Social Network Site) fatigue. Since then, it claims to have attracted more than 100,000 registered users.
The site…
Australian law needs to catch up with technology which means we can be watched at any time.
Flickr/Esther Gibbons
Watching other people is human. It’s why TV shows like Big Brother, and paparazzi magazines flourish. But while some people choose to expose private moments, others do not. And Australian law doesn’t always…
Teens have a right to confidential and private health care.
Ed Yourdon
If your teenage daughter was sexually active and wanted to go on the pill, you’d want to know, right? Well, think back to when you were her age – would you have told your parents?
These questions were…
Has TeaMp0isoN missed the point with its latest hacking stunt?
Kerim Okten/AAP
By Philip Branch, Swinburne University of Technology
The hacking of BlackBerry’s official blog by the mysterious collective TeaMp0isoN raises serious questions.
This black-hat hacking group, founded in 2009, has so far claimed responsibility for more than…
Why isn’t more being done to keep our sensitive information from prying eyes?
sinus iridium
Participation in Australian society involves providing information about yourself to both public and private sector organisations.
Such information may be sensitive, which raises important questions…
Would a right to privacy have helped Lara Bingle? AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy.
Who would have predicted there would be serious talk of a statutory privacy tort in Australia, giving private individuals who feel their privacy as been breached the right to sue? But then again, who would…
Increased intelligence data adds more noise, but not always more useful information.
ssoosay
Commentary from some sections of the IT community on the recent killings in Norway reminds us national security is still haunted by two visions:
1) With enough data it will be possible to comprehensively…
Lara Bingle and Michael Clarke faced enormous media interest over their relationship.
AAP
Reaction to the widening News of the World scandal has again highlighted the lack of protection against invasion of privacy by the media in Australia.
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating renewed his attack…
If you’re concerned about the data on your phone, there are a few things you can do.
Daniel Barry/EPA
The Apple iPhone feature of logging and storing users' location information has attracted worldwide attention.
But discussions about location privacy aside, a more basic question needs to be asked: how…
Specialists can go on a genetic fishing expedition tracking down potential relatives.
Doctors are supposed to keep patient information confidential unless told otherwise, right? Well, not any longer.
If you’re diagnosed with a genetic disorder, medical specialists are now allowed to contact…
Knowing me, knowing you: there is nothing we can’t view.
tonechootero/Flickr
Advanced surveillance and social media might seem like strange bedfellows. Until you look a bit closer, that is.
Technologies developed for surveillance applications are typically designed with robustness…
Advanced surveillance is about seeing what we all see – but better.
robynejay/Flickr
Commercial ports, railway stations and other crucial infrastructure are at constant risk from security incidents that can halt operations and, more worryingly, put you and I in harm’s way.
This is a reality…
Your cooperation is welcome … but not really necessary.
fictures/Flickr
In the surveillance world there are certain grand challenges – holy grails that researchers and those who use surveillance pursue doggedly, spurned on by the technical issues such challenges pose.
Paramount…
Are privacy concerns irrational in the era of Facebook and Twitter?
qubitsu
It’s hard to discuss public surveillance without immediately being asked about privacy issues. As technologists working on computer-based surveillance, it’s tempting to say this is outside our area of…
Apple might not use location information for its own benefit, so why collect it?
AAP
Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, hit back at reports yesterday that the company’s iPhones track the movements of its 100 million users.
The charge was that Apple was storing a database of this information, to which…
Where we are says a lot about who we are.
tulja/Flickr
PRIVACY – Your location is arguably more personal than your genetic profile; even identical twins can’t be in the same place at the same time. In terms of value, it’s on a par with your medical records…
Do you trust Facebook as much as you would your best friend?
Karen Bleier/AFP
Unless you’ve been chained to a fax machine for the past seven years, you’ll have noticed that Facebook is immensely popular.
Users numbered 641 million by February of this year.
Making and maintaining…
