The Australian Privacy Foundation (APF) is delighted to announce the results of the inaugural Sir Zelman Cowen Essay Competition.Here is the Media Release.Our thanks to:judges Elizabeth Evatt – Patron, Julian Burnside – Panel member, and Dan Svantesson – sometime Vice-ChairDavid Lindsay of Monash University for his considerable efforts in establishing the Competition and bringing the… Read More

Chair’s Report of 31 October 2013This AGM sees the retirement of two of APF’s longest-standing Board-members, to whom we extend our thanks on behalf of ourselves and all Australians:Julie CameronAPCC Founder and Coordinator 1992-1996APF Board-Member 1990-2003 and 2009-13Secretary 2002-2003BBA Committee 2003, 2009, 2011Nigel WatersAPCC Coordinator 1997-2002APF Board-Member 1997-2013Policy Coordinator 2002-2013Web-Site Committee 2002-2013Public Officer 2002-Telecommunications then… Read More

APF Newsletters are mostly ‘occasional’.  But this one contains news ‘hot off the press’.1. ‘Go on, Google me’Anna Funder, renowned author, and member of the APF Advisory Panel, published a piece in the (Fairfax) Good Weekend supplement of Saturday 10 August 2013, called ‘Go on, Google me’. (Or maybe just Google it …).2. Public Advisory… Read More

Prior to a number of elections, the Australian Privacy Foundation has issued Challenges to political Parties about their privacy policies.In the context of the forthcoming federal election, APF has drafted a request to the Parties for answers to a number of key questions, with the intention that their responses be summarised and published.We would appreciate… Read More

The APF has continued to attract high quality privacy advocates to the Board, with the appointment of Peter Clarke, a member of the Victorian Bar, practising in the areas of privacy, equity and defamation law. Peter writes on privacy law and policy on his website.Since the last newsletter, the Board of the Australian Privacy Foundation… Read More

Chair’s Report to the 2012 AGMThis Report provides additional information beyond that sent in the two previous reports to members during the last year:10 July 2012 (New Patrons and Advisory Panel members; APF’s 25th Anniversary)24 August 2012 (New Submissions; New Advisory Panel Members; Membership Reminder)Your Board has made about 70 distinct policy contributions during the… Read More

The Board of the Australian Privacy Foundation (APF) met with its new Patrons in Sydney on Monday 20 August, and prepared plans for new initiatives during the coming year.This coincided with the 25th Anniversary of APF’s establishment.Major new policy contributions this month have been on the following topics:the Privacy Amendment Bill, 4 large documents, plus… Read More

The 8 months since the last Occasional APF Newsletter have seen a great of activity.The Passing of APF’s Foundation PatronSir Zelman Cowen (1919–2011) was a leading legal academic whose ABC Boyer Lecture Series on ‘The Private Man’ in 1969 fired the starting-gun in the fight for privacy protections. He was twice a Vice-Chancellor, a Governor-General,… Read More

APF Chair’s Report to the 2011 AGMAfter 5 years in the Chair, it’s a good time to take stock of what’s been achieved by the organisation recently.Our primary focus is on policy. We’ve been progressively developing a proactive approach to issues, and now have 17 policy statements published. We have again made large numbers of… Read More

The Privacy Foundation’s Board-members have been very active recently on multiple fronts, particularly the Personally-Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR), the Cybercrime amendments, and the proposal for a privacy right of action. You can follow the submissions on the Policy pages, at https://www.privacy.org.au/Papers/.The APF encourages contributions from its members to the organisation’s operations.One avenue that’s available… Read More