DATA PROTECTION – AUSTRALIA

E-health record in need of overhaul

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Original article by Supratim Adhikari
The Australian – Page: 23 : 5-Feb-19

Head and neck surgeon Elizabeth Sigston does not believe that there should be any sharing of people’s medical records. Sigston says the $2 billion My Health Record system remains riddled with complexity, and she is very concerned about the proposed Data Sharing and Release Act, warning that it has the potential to override the Privacy Act. She says the risks associated with sharing data is most acute when it comes to genomic data, which the MHR is able to store. John Sutton of Armstrong Legal says there is no need for MHR data to be shared with third parties.

CORPORATES
ARMSTRONG LEGAL, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH

Tech experts opt out of My Health system

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Original article by Bo Seo
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 31-Jan-19

Australians must choose whether to opt out of the federal government’s controversial My Health Record system by 31 January. Data security and privacy concerns have prompted a number of people in the technology sector to opt out of the system, including Freelancer CEO and founder Matt Barrie, who says the government has done an "abysmal job" of protecting Australians’ privacy. Cyber security expert Vijay Varadharajan has also chosen to opt out, although Cyber Security Research Centre CEO Rachael Falk has opted in.

CORPORATES
FREELANCER LIMITED – ASX FLN, CYBER SECURITY RESEARCH CENTRE, AIRTREE VENTURES PTY LTD, MICROSOFT CORPORATION, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE

Hacking risks higher under open banking

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 24-Jan-19

The Australian Banking Association has expressed concern that theft of personal data and email scams will become rife under the federal government’s open banking regime. Open banking is slated to begin on 1 February 2020, with a pilot program to commence in July 2019. The ABA’s submission to the Treasury’s draft report on open banking has called for the terms of reference for the pilot program to include an assessment of the potential privacy risks.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BANKING ASSOCIATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

Dutton slams tech giants over encryption laws

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Original article by Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 11-Oct-18

The federal government continues to face opposition to its proposed digital encryption laws. However, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton argues that the laws are necessary due to the growing use of encryption services by criminals and terrorists, adding that existing laws are inadequate to deal with such technologies. Dutton has also noted that Silicon Valley-based technology companies are among the biggest critics of the proposed laws, despite their poor track record in protecting personal data.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB (AUSTRALIA), AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE, GOOGLE INCORPORATED

Tech giants face $10m fines under security laws

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Original article by Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 14-Aug-18

The federal government will introduce new laws that aim to boost efforts to detect terrorist and criminal activity via electronic surveillance. The laws, which were developed in consultation with telcos, internet firms and telecommunications device makers, include fines of up to $10 million for companies that refuse to provide access to secret data. They have been introduced after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull complained in 2017 that terrorists and criminals are using secret message services such as WhatsApp to avoid surveillance; he promised to take action to require technology firms to work with law enforcement agencies to detect such activity.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION, AUSTRALIAN SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, AUSTRALIAN SIGNALS DIRECTORATE, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT

Facebook bill for 300,000 Aussies

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Original article by Ben Butler
The Australian – Page: 3 : 11-Jul-18

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has received a formal complaint about Facebook regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The number of Australians who were affected by the data breach is estimated to exceed 300,000, and they may be entitled to compensation for breach of privacy. Nathan Landis of litigation funder IMF Bentham notes that the average compensation payout ranges from $1,000 to $10,000, which suggests that Facebook’s total liability could be between $3m and $3bn. The complaint was lodged by IMF Bentham and law firm Johnson Winter & Slattery.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA LLC, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN INFORMATION COMMISSIONER, IMF BENTHAM LIMITED – ASX IMF, JOHNSON WINTER AND SLATTERY, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PRIVACY COMMISSIONER, GREAT BRITAIN. OFFICE OF THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

MPs warn Facebook over China

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Original article by Simon Benson, Darren Davidson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 7-Jun-18

Social media giant Facebook is under scrutiny over revelations that its users’ personal data was shared with Chinese technology company Huawei. Labor MP Anthony Byrne has described Facebook’s actions as "completely unacceptable". The deputy chairman of federal parliament’s joint committee on intelligence and security has also raised the possibility that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could be asked to appear before the committee. Zuckerberg has previously appeared before US and European legislators in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES COMPANY LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. JOINT PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA LLC, LENOVO GROUP LIMITED, OPPO ELECTRONICS CORPORATION, TCL CORPORATION, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE LIMITED, COMMUNIST PARTY (CHINA), AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, APPLE INCORPORATED

CBA loses 12 million customer statements and keeps it secret

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Original article by
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 3-May-18

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has belatedly admitted that it misplaced data on the financial transactions of 19.8 million accounts. The data breach occurred in 2016, when a subcontractor lost tape drives that contained more than a decades’ worth of financial transactions. CBA has indicated that it notified regulators of the incident but decided that it did not need to inform customers of the breach.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, BUZZFEED PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

Facebook’s reckoning is fast approaching

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Original article by John McDuling
The Age – Page: 20 : 6-Apr-18

Despite the recent data breach controversy involving Cambridge Analytica, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg still believes that he is the right person to run the social media company, while he does not seem to think the scandal has affected Facebook’s advertising business to any great extent. Zuckerberg will shortly testify before the US Congress, and Facebook’s executives in Australia are also likely to face scrutiny given that more that 300,000 local users may have been affected by the scandal. Facebook is also the subject of investigations by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and the Federal Privacy Commissioner.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA LLC, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PRIVACY COMMISSIONER, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, GOOGLE INCORPORATED

It was a ‘wake-up call’: CSIRO spent millions after Chinese data breach

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Original article by Angus Grigg, Ben Potter, Nick McKenzie
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 4-Apr-18

The CSIRO’s annual report shows that it undertook an internal review of its IT security following a data breach that was first disclosed in late 2013. In November of that year, the Australian Federal Police began an investigation into the unnamed Chinese scientist who was at the centre of the suspected breach, after he failed to turn up for work and subsequently returned to China. CSIRO has since invested millions of dollars on upgrading its cyber security and information systems.

CORPORATES
CSIRO, AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE, CANBERRA DATA CENTRES PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, AUSTRALIA. BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, AUSTRALIAN ANIMAL HEALTH LABORATORY