ASX diversity guidelines face axe as new proposal emerges

February 19, 2025roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Perry Williams, Janet Albrechtsen
The Australian – Page: 13 & 19 : 19-Feb-25

Tanarra Capital founder John Wylie says the ASX Corporate Governance Council should abandon a proposal to require directors of listed companies to disclose personal information such as their sexual orientation and religious beliefs. He says it is a gross invasion of people’s personal privacy to have to disclose their sexual identity in order to be eligible for a board position. A number of corporate directors have released a joint statement backing Wylie’s stance. Wylie has proposed his own reforms, which include requiring directors of listed companies to stand for re-election annually rather than every three years.

CORPORATES
TANARRA CAPITAL PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE COUNCIL

The sensitive data of Australia’s security personnel is at risk of being on-sold to foreign actors

October 3, 2024roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Ange Lavoipierre
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 3-Oct-24

Research undertaken by the Irish Council For Civil Liberties highlights the national security implications of the Real Time Bidding system used by digital platforms to personalise online advertisements. The report notes that Google and Microsoft both send RTB data on Australian internet users to companies in China, which are required by law to share such information with the central government if they are asked to do so. The report’s author Dr Johnny Ryan says the RTB system is a "goldmine" for intelligence gathering, and could be exploited by foreign powers. The Coalition has urged the federal government to take urgent action to address the issue.

CORPORATES
IRISH COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Foxtel, NRL, AFL face US privacy suit

August 21, 2024roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 19 : 21-Aug-24

Pay-TV group Foxtel has been accused of breaching the US Video Privacy Protection Act by using Meta’s tracking pixel to send targeted advertising to people outside of Australia who subscribe to its streaming video services. The AFL and the NRL have also been named as defendents in two separate class actions, which are being heard by the US District Court of California. The class actions centre on allegations that the Watch AFL and Watch NRL websites use the tracking pixels to send data to Facebook about the content the user is watching, even if they are not logged into the social media site.

CORPORATES
FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE, DISTRICT COURT OF UNITED STATES

Anti far-right campaigners say Labor’s anti-doxxing laws could be weaponised

April 12, 2024roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Josh Taylor
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 12-Apr-24

The federal government is looking at legislating to make doxxing a criminal offence, as well as the right to sue for serious invasion of privacy. It comes after a spreadsheet containing the names, professions and social media accounts of 600 Australian Jewish writers and artists who were members of a WhatsApp group was posted online; it was posted in response to some group members actively targeting pro-Palestinian writers and their publishers over their coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict. In its submission on the proposed laws, the White Rose Society, which routinely investigates neo-Nazi groups and unmasks those groups in its reporting, claimed that not all doxxing is harmful, and that exposing such groups for the purpose of community and public safety is an important service.

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PM vows to crack down on doxxing

February 13, 2024roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Joe Kelly, Jess Malcolm, Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 13-Feb-24

The federal government will criminalise ‘doxxing’ as part of an overhaul of the Privacy Act, after the personal details of 600 Jewish people in the nation’s creative industries were published online. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it is "completely unacceptable" for Australians to be targeted due to their religion or faith. Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich says the laws are urgently needed, adding that the deliberate online targeting of Jewish people constitutes "digital terrorism". Meanwhile, the government has come under scrutiny for taking until 2 February to declare the mass killing of Israelis in October 2023 as a terrorist attack.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ANTI-DEFAMATION COMMISSION

Media bosses unite to push government on press freedom

February 28, 2023roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Nick Bonyhady
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 28-Feb-23

Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus met with executives from Australia’s major media groups on Monday to discuss a range of issues, including proposed changes to privacy laws. The executives also pushed the goverment to act on recommendations that resulted from raids on the ABC and the home of then News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst in 2019, with Drefyus saying he had been shocked by the raids at the time. Other issues discussed at the meeting included increased protection for whistleblowers and further changes to defamation laws.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT, AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS

Australia to consider European-style right to be forgotten privacy laws

January 19, 2023roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Paul Karp
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 19-Jan-23

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the federal government will pursue a major overhaul of the Privacy Act. He had stated in late 2022 that the legislation is not "fit-for-purpose" in the digital due to inaction by the former Coalition government. Amongst other things, potential reforms could include introducing a statutory tort of privacy, which would give people the right to seek damages for breaches of their privacy. The so-called ‘right to be forgotten’ could also be on Labor’s agenda; this would allow people to request companies to erase their personal data if it is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT

Privacy fight for BHP vax order as miners caught faking jabs

January 19, 2022roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 19-Jan-22

BHP has defended its decision to require all employees to provide proof of their COVID-19 vaccination status by 31 January. The resources group says it needs all relevant information to ensure that employees are not faking their vaccination status. A spokesman says that immunisation history statements and COVID-19 digital certificates will only be viewed by members of BHP’s health and medical teams. The CFMEU has expressed concern about the privacy implications of BHP’s policy, and has taken the matter to the Fair Work Commission.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA

Judge takes swipe at media on privacy

September 28, 2020roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Michael Pelly
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 28-Sep-20

High Court judge Patrick Keane criticised the ‘old media’ in a recent speech titled ‘Too Much Information: civilisation and the problems of privacy’. Justice Keane claimed that media owners had a degree of self-interest in their push to have existing defamation laws changed, and that when it comes to choosing between the right to privacy and the right to know, they are likely to favour the right "with the dollar signs attached". The states recently agreed to introduce reforms to defamation laws which they argue in part will better protect public interest journalism, but so far New South Wales is the only state to have passed the uniform legislation.

CORPORATES
HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

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Australia's News Summarising Service

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