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

The threats to privacy have multiplied and intensified in recent years. Privacy advocates have been forced onto a treadmill of continual reactive responses to corporate abuses, government agency efforts to establish a national database, and sporadic political initiatives with unjustified negative impacts on privacy.The Australian Privacy Foundation has accordingly moved towards more proactive Policy Statements… Read More

Thanks to those who voted for BBA nominees last week.The Winners were announced last night.Orwell Award for the Most Invasive TechnologyBody Scanners(Runner-Up Google’s StreetView and Wifi)Orwell Award for the Worst Agency – Won JointlyQld Drivers LicenceVic Transport Ticketing Authority / MykiOrwell Award for the Worst CorporationFacebook(Runners-Up Biometrics Institute)The Boot-in-Mouth AwardEric Schmidt (immediate past CEO of… Read More

Hello fellow member of the Australian Privacy FoundationVoting for the Big Brother Awards is now open.Here are the instructions for casting your vote:1. Review the Nomination Forms and ResponsesThey are in the attached .zip file, and at https://www.privacy.org.au/bba/.If you have any questions, email mailto:bba@privacy.org.au.2. Cast Your Vote in each CategoryDELETE the name of the finalists… Read More

Chair’s Report to the Members7 October 2010The APF Board has continued its strong contributions to privacy policy in Australia. Its activities can be followed by checking on the home-page.The papers index shows 48 separate policy-related papers in the first 9 months of 2010. The Board handles continual requests for submissions from a wide range of… Read More