Protecting our privacy from criminals – and corporations

Corporations extract and keep huge amounts of personal information from their customers, then allow hackers to steal it through lax security. Reducing the amount of information they can hold would therefore limit the damage caused by criminal and state sponsored cyber-criminals.

Stop your fridge spying on you

Big technology firms harvest your data from the plethora of cloud-connected devices you use every day to target advertising back at you, so we should at least be aware of how our privacy is invaded.

Tough new rules promised for tech privacy

A proposed online privacy code would give consumers more control over how tech companies collect and use their data.

One simple rule to protect consumer privacy

No major online marketplace in Australia respects the privacy of consumers. Letting customers opt out of data tracking would be a good start.

Private life dramas

Commentators talk about individual privacy as if it is a sacred right which has to be protected but most people have few qualms concerning which organisations access their personal data.

Rethinking data and consent

People may consent to the use of their personal data, without being sufficiently aware or informed of the nature and extent of potential implications.

Protecting anonymous data

The concerns raised by the COVIDSafe app suggest that Australians care a lot about privacy, at least when information to be held by the government is involved. Let’s turn that passion into action, starting with bolstering the privacy protections on large datasets.

Privacy v the pandemic

Government tracking of mobile phones could be a potent weapon against COVID-19 in helping to monitor possible contacts, however the use of such data raises a host of privacy questions.

Legislation + assessment = privacy

A formula to assess the privacy risks of information platforms could play a useful role in protecting the public, informing investors and shaping government policy.

Why the government’s proposed facial recognition database is causing a stir

The Government’s proposed national identity-matching scheme must get the balance right when it comes to addressing identity crime and assisting law enforcement while protecting individual privacy.

Engineering consent

The Chinese Communist Party’s coercive and invasive technologies for monitoring public behaviour are being picked up by other authoritarian states around the world.

Privacy matters

Public concern about the use of their online data by technology corporations and the government continues to grow. The solution may not always require new controls and regulations, but the enforcement of current law in the new digital world.