Drawing upon interviews with 19 journalists and 2 media lawyers, Dr Diarmaid Harkin and Dr Monique Mann report on how whistle-blowers and sources are more reluctant to cooperate with journalists. Journalists also express “very low confidence” that they are prepared for the threats of electronic surveillance and experience a general lack of support on crucial matters of cyber-security. The implications for press freedom, democracy, and law reform will be explored. 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
What do TikTok, Bunnings, eBay and Netflix have in common? They’re all hyper-collectors
You walk into a shopping centre to buy some groceries. Without your knowledge, an electronic scan of your face is taken by in-store surveillance cameras and stored in an online database. Each time you return to that store, your “faceprint” is compared with those of people wanted for shoplifting or violence. This might sound like science fiction but it’s the reality for many of us. By failing to take our digital privacy seriously – as former human rights commissioner Ed Santow has warned – Australia is “sleepwalking” its way into mass surveillance. Read More
Even if TikTok and other apps are collecting your data, what are the actual consequences?
By now, most of us are aware social media companies collect vast amounts of our information. By doing this, they can target us with ads and monetise our attention. The latest chapter in the data-privacy debate concerns one of the world’s most popular apps among young people – TikTok. Yet anecdotally it seems the potential risks aren’t really something young people care about. Some were interviewed by The Project this week regarding the risk of their TikTok data being accessed from China. They said it wouldn’t stop them using the app. “Everyone at the moment has access to everything,” one person said. Another said they didn’t “have much to hide from the Chinese government”. Are these fair assessments? Or should Australians actually be worried about yet another social media company taking their data? Read More
Facial recognition is on the rise – but the law is lagging a long way behind
Private companies and public authorities are quietly using facial recognition systems around Australia. Despite the growing use of this controversial technology, there is little in the way of specific regulations and guidelines to govern its use. Read More
Insurance firms can skim your online data to price your insurance — and there’s little in the law to stop this
What if your insurer was tracking your online data to price your car insurance? Seems far-fetched, right? Yet there is predictive value in the digital traces we leave online. And insurers may use data collection and analytics tools to find our data and use it to price insurance services. Looking at several examples from customer loyalty schemes and social media, we found insurers can access vast amounts of consumer data under Australia’s weak privacy laws. Read More
APF releases 2022 Federal Election Scorecard
In April 2022, we asked political parties where they stood on a set of important privacy priorities for the federal election. This scorecard shows their level of support for these privacy principles.
(Updated May 19th) Read More
MEDIA RELEASE: “Our” ABC iView mandatory login requirement – unnecessary and linked to export to data aggregators?
The ABC is still promoting its now-mandatory ‘iView Login’ without dealing with unresolved questions, particularly about adequate disclosure of their apparent intent to export individual-level, ineffectively de-identified iView account usage data to foreign third party commercial surveillance companies like Tealium, Google and Facebook. Read More
APF continues to engage with the ABC over mandatory iView registration
On May 11, the APF responded to the short letter we received on April 28 from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in reply to our last communication. APF believes a transparent dialogue on these issues surrounding mandatory registration for use of ABC iView online services is of national importance, and remains both deeply concerned and frustrated with the ABC’s lack of consultation on key issues which remain unresolved, particularly regarding disclosure of account-usage-related metadata to foreign commercial data aggregators. Read More
ACCC says consumers need more choices about what online marketplaces are doing with their data
Consumers using online retail marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon “have little effective choice in the amount of data they share”, according to the latest report of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) Digital Platform Services Inquiry. The report reiterates the ACCC’s earlier calls for amendments to the Australian Consumer Law to address unfair data terms and practices. However, none of these proposals is likely to come into effect in the near future. In the meantime, we should also consider whether practices such as obtaining information about users from third-party data brokers are fully compliant with existing privacy law. Read More