The Australian Privacy Foundation Newsletter of 4 May 2024 APF Board members continue their efforts to influence policy in privacy-sensitive ways. The load continues to be high, and we need more contributors. That way we can deepen, but also to diversify, the insights that we bring to environmental scanning, evidence-gathering, analysis and the presentation of… Read More
APF’s Occasional Newsletter – July 2023
APF continues its work influencing policy wherever it can. We seek suitable balances between the privacy interest, on the one hand, and other needs of individuals, communities and society as a whole. However, APF needs your assistance to maintain its momentum. Renewing your membership is helpful. To renew, direct deposit to the APF bank account… Read More
Card-Number Protections Depend on Data Deletion
The Optus, Medibank and MedLab data breaches have caused some re-thinking. But not all of the thinking is clear enough. It’s being touted that there’s a simple solution to driver licence data being compromised. That solution is said to be the addition of a card-number.
Organisations have to understand that the critical issue is: The retention of authentication-data in databases creates an unmanageable vulnerability. Read More
Newsletter 23 August 2022
Australian Privacy Foundation – Occasional Newsletter 23 August 2022 We’re combining this newsletter with the Annual Renewal Notice How to renew Check how much to pay ($275 Life, $40, or $10 concession), here Note: If you joined within the last 6 months, it won’t be necessary for you to renew until next year’s notice Pay… Read More
APF Newsletter 19 September 2021
The Australian Privacy Foundation enjoys the support of many leading Australians across many walks of life. We routinely draw attention to the standing of the APF’s Patrons and Advisory Panel members when we make submissions.
The APF’s policy positions have always been based on research and careful argument, and we believe that the quality of the Panel reinforces that positioning. We’re delighted to announce a tranche of new members of that Panel. Read More
O’Brien on Authoritarianism – 19 August 2021
“If political leaders take comfort now in sharing platforms with police and military commanders to enhance their own authority, and feel there is some political benefit in doing so, they’ll be tempted to do it again in the future, and it becomes a part of the normal fabric of politics, which it shouldn’t.” Read More
APF’s Position on the 2021 Census
The APF has been buried in a large number of issues, and was unable to prioritise work on the Census during 2020-21. APF invested vast amounts of time in the lead-up to each of the ’06, ’11 and ’16 events. The impact we had was considerable in ’06, but has declined each time since. The simple fact is that the ABS has long since abandoned its once exemplary stand on privacy. It has now positioned itself as the operator of a centralised database on the whole population, expropriating data from many government agencies, retaining all Census and Survey data in identified form, and consolidating it all into a single, dense record. The National Health Survey has been incorporated into the 2021 Census for randomly selected households. Read More
APF Newsletter 6 July 2021
This Newsletter provides a brief ‘policy news’ update, preceded by the Renewals Notice. Read More
APF Newsletter 7 May 2021
We regret the 10-month delay since the most recent Newsletter!
The Board has remained very busy throughout, with about 20 submissions made during that period.
These included a very substantial response to the Issues Paper published by the Attorney-General’s Department in relation to the (non-independent) review it is conducting of the Privacy Act. The scope was very broad, and it accordingly involved a team of contributors, led by Prof. Graham Greenleaf. Read More
APF Newsletter 8 July 2020
We regret the delay since the last Newsletter.
The primary reason has again been busyness on policy issues, but to some extent the COVID-19 epidemic has also played a role.
The lockdown hasn’t greatly affected the workings of an organisation that has operated mostly virtually for decades already. However, it’s had a substantial impact on many of our most active volunteers. Read More