There is one sentence in a recent presentation made by a media company to advertisers, that frankly terrified me: “by 2030, every ad and integration served by Seven West Media will be personalised, optimised and addressable”. The implications of this a…
Archives for 2023
Glass half empty, or glass half full? How to read the Privacy Act reform proposals
Is it a bold vision for reform, a squandered opportunity, or something in between? How you feel about the Attorney-General’s report on the Privacy Act reform proposals, released today, probably depends on how you interpret three little words: “agrees i…
Thought your doctor’s visit was private? Australian data brokers have your data, and they’re not afraid to use it.
Even in settings you might consider off-limits, like a visit to your cardiologist or gynaecologist, businesses you have probably never heard of are collecting, profiling, trading and monetising your data. Welcome to the shady world of data brokering, a…
Prevention, notification, compensation: lessons from a government data breach managed badly
What happens when a mailout goes horribly wrong – and then the data breach notification is worse The release earlier this month of the OAIC’s 2023 Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey has revealed that in the prior 12 months, 47% of adult Australians…
The great con job: how the media and marketing industry is getting away with tracking Australians
Australians don’t want to be tracked. We don’t want to be tracked, profiled, packaged up and traded, then targeted. Across surveys from the OAIC, ACCC and the Consumer Policy Research Centre, we know that Australians regard online surveillance of our…
Keeping it fake: the legal and ethical implications of synthetic data
It may seem counter-intuitive, but even synthetic data can have privacy impacts. Companies and governments alike demand masses of data for operational, policy and research uses, but between large scale data breaches and the re-identification of publish…
To fix the Privacy Act, we need one extra sentence
Indirect identification, individuation, disambiguation, distinguishing from all others, or singling out…. call it what you want, but the statutory definition of ‘personal information’ needs to clearly state that it includes when individuals can be sing…
Privacy Act reforms – the devil is in the details
Given some of the breathless media coverage about the proposed reforms to the Privacy Act, you could be forgiven for thinking that the government is about to embark on a radical transformation of our privacy laws, to the benefit of consumers and detrim…
So you want to host a hackathon
If your organisation is looking at hosting or participating in a data hackathon, in order to solve complex policy challenges, meet customer needs or identify business opportunities, you will need to resolve a number of privacy challenges first. In thi…
