The May 2014 ruling by the European Court of Justice, dubbed the right to be forgotten, is seen as a precedent for all internet searches in all European Union member states. But the issues this ruling…
Mobile phone towers can be used to locate people.
Flickr/Ervins Strauhmanis
Metadata is in the news again with revelations that police in Australia have been getting access to data collected from mobile base stations (cell towers). In the wiretapping world there is a distinction…
The US government has lifted restrictions on the use of high-quality satellite images in a move that will be welcomed by industry but could have serious privacy implications for the man or woman on the…
Edward Snowden’s revelations sparked protests, but little real reform.
Jim Lo Scalzo/AAP
The revelations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have altered the way we think about accountability, transparency and the rule of law with regard to both the activities of security agencies and the…
Attorney General George Brandis will be expected to lead the culture change to one of open information.
Stefan Postles/AAP
Tony Abbott’s 2013 election platform promised to “restore accountability and improve transparency measures to be more accountable to you”. In spite of this promise the first Abbott government budget will…
The EU’s data privacy laws could cast a shadow on Australian business.
AAP
With the amendments to Australia’s privacy law coming into force, it is only natural that our attention is firmly focused on the domestic privacy scene at the moment. However, perhaps the bigger challenge…
Will the Privacy Act protect you from being identified by your mobile phone address?
Santos "Grim Santo" Gonzalez/Flickr
What does privacy mean in an age of ongoing privacy breaches? With new privacy law coming online in Australia on March 12, our Privacy in Practice series explores the practical challenges facing Australian…
In the age of Edward Snowden regulators and the public are rethinking privacy.
Abode of Chaos/Flickr
What does privacy mean in an age of ongoing privacy breaches? With new privacy law coming online in Australia on March 12, our Privacy in Practice series explores the practical challenges facing Australian…
Good grief. Have you checked out the small print on this care.data deal?
Machine Project
The UK government has decided to hold off on plans to upload GP records onto a central database for six months. But it may have to drop the plan permanently unless it can provide satisfactory answers to…
Electronic medical records are essential for treating rare conditions. I have a two-year-old daughter with a rare medical condition. She is seen by three doctors and is on a number of different medicines…
Last week NHS England announced that the care.data scheme would be put on hold for six months while efforts were made to “build understanding of the benefits of using the information, what safeguards are…
Patient records are an irreplaceable resource for health research for the benefit of individual patients and populations. They allow researchers, for example, to examine how our lifestyles might determine…
The Immigration Department, which erects shadecloth around its detention centres to give asylum seekers ‘privacy’, has potentially put 10,000 people at risk by mistakenly releasing detailed identifying information about them.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Another day, another data breach. The response to that breach tells us something about privacy law, the media and bureaucracies. On Wednesday, The Guardian revealed that the Department of Immigration and…
That’s one way to get around Facebook’s facial recognition.
mw238
While every year since the advent of the internet has had its share of privacy stories, 2013 has been a cornucopia of news about surveillance and personal data. Undoubtedly, the biggest story of the year…
‘Yes we scan!’ NSA monitoring will be a Christmas headache for Barack Obama.
Mike Herbst
Even before opening his stocking on Christmas morning, Barack Obama has his holiday reading cut out for him. His Review Group on Intelligence and Surveillance Technologies has handed him a 300-page report…
Young children cannot consent to personal information being shared online, or understand the possible implications.
Lotus Carroll
Children consistently delight and surprise us, and make us hoot with laughter. It’s only natural to want to share these moments with friends and family. But the trend of posting information about our young…
UAVs as small as 10cm by 2.5cm are already in use for surveillance by the military. What are the privacy implications if these devices become easily accessible?
Defence Images/Flickr
What happens when an Amazon drone drops through your roof or lands on the neighbour’s toddler while delivering a parcel? Can an unhappy pig farmer shoot down a drone operated by animal rights activists…
We collect huge amounts of data. In health, this includes data relating to inpatient and outpatient care, mental health services, prescribing and primary care. Big data is when the amount of these data…
Tesco is no longer content with just knowing what’s in your basket.
SFB579
Tesco, a British grocer with global status, has this week teamed up with Alan Sugar’s Amscreen to take personalised advertising to the next level. By means of Amscreen’s proprietary facial recognition…
Surveillance can be desirable – but only in the right context.
Shardayyy
Over the past year or so, surveillance issues have become more visible to the public, especially forms of what Australian computer scientist Roger Clarke calls “dataveillance”, or the systematic collection…