Has Canberra learned the wrong lesson from Cambridge Analytica: abusing ‘informed consent’ gives you a plausible excuse? Exploiting ignorance, inaction and misplaced trust gets you the Big Data?
Our advice on My Health Record, like that of Dr Katherine Kemp, a specialist in data privacy [1], is to Opt-Out while you still can: we now know that your once-off chance to protect your medical confidentiality begins on 16 July and expires on 15 October 2018.

The Australian Privacy Foundation is seriously alarmed about a recently revealed legislative proposal that would have Australia’s foreign signals intelligence agency, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), use its considerable powers to surveil, track, and hack Australian citizens without prior authorisation. This is a dangerous precedent that would remove an already inadequate oversight mechanism that our… Read More

Sacha Molitorisz, University of Technology Sydney Facebook announced last week it would discontinue the partner programs that allow advertisers to use third-party data from companies such as Acxiom, Experian and Quantium to target users. Graham Mudd, Facebook’s product marketing director, said in a statement: We want to let advertisers know that we will be shutting… Read More

News that Facebook has given away personal information about many Australians is a reminder that we need businesses, governments and political parties to be accountable. Australians need better privacy protection. They can get that without a lot of pain, money or fuss. The Australian Privacy Foundation – on behalf of all Australians – calls on… Read More

APF Vice Chair / Co-Chair of Surveillance Committee Dr Adam Molnar, and Co-Chair Surveillance Committee Dr Monique Mann recently gave evidence at the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Law Enforcement Inquiry on the impact of new and emerging information and communications technology. They emphasized the importance of not undermining or weakening encryption, and you can sign… Read More

David Glance, University of Western Australia The London-based data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica has been accused of using illegally gathered information from more than 50 million Facebook users to support Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign. Facebook has suspended the accounts of the firm along with Cambridge University academic Aleksandr Kogan and consultant-turned-whistle-blower Christopher Wylie, who… Read More