Category Archives: Privacy

Prince and Princess of Wales win privacy case against Paris Match

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French magazine publishes judicial notice after using paparazzi images of family holiday in Alps

The Prince and Princess of Wales have won a privacy case against a French magazine after it published paparazzi photographs of them and their children on a private family ski holiday, Kensington Palace said.

William and Catherine launched legal action after their break was featured in Paris Match magazine in April, with a series of images documenting their activities with their children at a French resort in the Alps.

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News Corp had no first-hand source suggesting Sam Groth’s wife underage at start of relationship, MP’s lawyer tells court

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Australia’s new privacy laws to be tested as Victorian Liberal MP and wife Brittany Groth sue over Herald Sun articles

A News Corp journalist had “not one piece of information” to suggest the deputy Victorian Liberal leader, Sam Groth, began a relationship with his wife when she was underage, the MP’s lawyers have told a court.

In what a federal court judge described as a “test case” for Australia’s new privacy laws, Groth and his wife, Brittany, are suing the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), reporter Stephen Drill and the Herald Sun’s editor, Sam Weir, over a series of articles published in July.

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Digital ID: Danes and Estonians find it ‘pretty uncontroversial’

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Citizens have enrolled with little opposition, albeit with some concerns over security and privacy, as UK plans system

For Danish teenagers, getting enrolled for MitID (my ID) has become somewhat of a rite of passage.

From the age of 13, Danes can enrol for the national digital ID system, which can be used for everything from logging into online banking to signing documents electronically and booking a doctor’s appointment.

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NHS staff unsettled by patients filming care and posting videos on social media

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Radiographers voice concerns about being filmed without consent and say trend could violate other patients’ privacy

NHS staff have voiced concern about the growing numbers of patients who are filming themselves undergoing medical treatment and uploading it to TikTok and Instagram.

Radiographers, who take X-rays and scans, fear the trend could compromise the privacy of other patients being treated nearby and lead to staff having their work discussed online.

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US supreme court rules Doge can access social security data during legal challenge

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Key player in Trump’s drive to slash federal workforce keeps access to sensitive records including family court and mental health records

The US supreme court on Friday allowed members of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to access the sensitive records kept by the Social Security Administration while legal challenges play out.

The conservative-majority court, in an unsigned order with the three liberal justices dissenting, sided with the Trump administration in the appeal involving Doge, the team spearheaded by the billionaire Elon Musk.

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US immigration authorities collecting DNA information of children in criminal database

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Collection of migrants’ DNA has increased by 5,000% in three years in a ‘massive expansion of genetic surveillance’

US immigration authorities are collecting and uploading the DNA information of migrants, including children, to a national criminal database, according to government documents released earlier this month.

The database includes the DNA of people who were either arrested or convicted of a crime, which law enforcement uses when seeking a match for DNA collected at a crime scene. However, most of the people whose DNA has been collected by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the agency that published the documents, were not listed as having been accused of any felonies. Regardless, CBP is now creating a detailed DNA profile on migrants that will be permanently searchable by law enforcement, which amounts to a “massive expansion of genetic surveillance”, one expert said.

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Google agrees to pay Texas $1.375bn over data-privacy claims

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State attorney general said company secretly tracked users’ movements, searches, voiceprints and facial geometry

Google has agreed to pay $1.375bn in a settlement in principle reached with the state of Texas over allegations the company violated users’ data privacy, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, said on Friday.

The agreement settles two lawsuits that covered three products for allegedly violating Texas consumer protection laws.

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Wikipedia challenging UK law it says exposes it to ‘manipulation and vandalism’

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Wikimedia Foundation seeks judicial review of some requirements of Online Safety Act it claims may endanger safety of volunteer editors

The charity that hosts Wikipedia is challenging the UK’s online safety legislation in the high court, warning some of its regulations would expose the site to “manipulation and vandalism”.

In what could be the first judicial review related to the Online Safety Act, Wikimedia Foundation claims it is at risk of being subjected to the act’s toughest category 1 duties, which impose additional requirements on the biggest sites and apps.

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Revealed: Chinese researchers can access half a million UK GP records

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Medical information will be available from UK Biobank, despite western intelligence agencies’ security fears

Researchers from China are to be allowed access to half a million UK GP records despite western intelligence agencies’ fears about the authoritarian regime amassing health data, the Guardian can reveal.

Preparations are under way to transfer the records to UK Biobank, a research hub that holds detailed medical information donated by 500,000 volunteers. One of the world’s largest troves of health data, the facility makes its information available to universities, scientific institutes and private companies. A Guardian analysis shows one in five successful applications for access come from China.

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Australian government agencies could be customers of Israeli spyware, research suggests

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While it is unknown if any Australians have been targeted, the military-grade program from Paragon Solutions provides full access to encrypted messaging apps

Australian government agencies could be customers of military-grade spyware from Israeli firm Paragon Solutions, a new report suggests.

In January, Meta revealed more than 90 people, including journalists, had their WhatsApp compromised by the software, although it is unknown if any Australians were targeted.

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Apple’s UK encryption legal challenge heard behind closed doors

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Media organisations including the Guardian and the BBC fail to gain entry to proceedings

A hearing in Apple’s legal battle with the UK government over access to customer data was held behind closed doors on Friday after the press failed to gain entry to proceedings.

The US tech firm has launched an appeal with the investigatory powers tribunal after the Home Office demanded access to encrypted data stored remotely in Apple’s cloud servers.

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Home Office contractor collected data on UK citizens while checking migrants’ finances

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Official sent email to charity that suggested Home Office had data on ‘hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting Britons’

The Home Office has been accused of collecting data on “hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting British citizens” while conducting financial checks on migrants.

A report by a private contractor for a routine immigration application was mistakenly sent to a charity by a government official, and contained information on more than 260 people including their names, dates of birth and electoral roll data.

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‘Authoritarian and heavy-handed’: call for investigation into vetting of experts by UK civil servants

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Speakers banned after criticising government in social media posts

The information watchdog has been asked to investigate “authoritarian” government vetting that caused speakers to be banned from official events for criticising ministers.

Two experts, who discovered that civil servants had combed through years of social media posts to judge them “unsuitable” to address conferences, believe the practice was covert and unlawful.

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Personal details of financially distressed Australians shared in ‘leads list’ of property development course

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Master Wealth Control, trading as DG Institute, breached privacy laws by sharing names and addresses of people in distressed situations, regulator finds

A property investment company breached privacy laws by sharing the names and addresses of people going through a divorce or financial distress with participants of its wealth-building classes, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has found.

Master Wealth Control Pty Ltd (DG Institute), whose director was the prominent Sydney property investor Dominique Grubisa until July, offers courses and mentoring programs on property and business investment.

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Bunnings breached privacy of customers by using facial recognition, watchdog finds

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Hardware chain breached law by scanning faces of everyone entering the store against a database of banned customers

Bunnings breached the privacy of potentially hundreds of thousands of Australians through the use of facial recognition technologies in stores to scan every customer on entry that were aimed at addressing theft or store safety, the Australian privacy commissioner has ruled.

In 2022, it was revealed the hardware chain was one of a number of retailers using facial recognition tech in stores to check the face of every customer entering the store against a database of banned customers.

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Is your air fryer spying on you? Concerns over ‘excessive’ surveillance in smart devices

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UK consumer group Which? finds some everyday items including watches and speakers are ‘stuffed with trackers’

Air fryers that gather your personal data and audio speakers “stuffed with trackers” are among examples of smart devices engaged in “excessive” surveillance, according to the consumer group Which?

The organisation tested three air fryers, increasingly a staple of British kitchens, each of which requested permission to record audio on the user’s phone through a connected app.

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Half of Australia’s law enforcement agencies have banned officers using encrypted messaging apps

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Exclusive: After NSW ban on the likes of WhatsApp and Signal, federal counterparts permit a ‘limited number’ which they declined to reveal

Half of the Australian law enforcement agencies across Australia have banned their officers from using messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal, after New South Wales police last week banned the practice.

Last week, the NSW police force said it had introduced security software that meant “social media and other personal apps will not work or be downloadable” on NSW police force issued devices.

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Many of Australia’s top car sellers are collecting and sharing driver data, Choice investigation finds

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Consumer group analysed carmakers’ privacy policies to determine the extent to which modern, more digital vehicles collect data

A Choice analysis of carmaker privacy policies has found some of the biggest car sellers in Australia collect and share a range of driver data, including in some cases video and biometric data, with third parties.

The consumer group analysed the privacy policies of Toyota, Ford, MG, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai, Tesla, Subaru, Isuzu and Mitsubishi to determine the extent that modern vehicles are collecting data on their customers, as vehicles become more and more digital.

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Guardian Essential poll: Twice as many voters back Labor’s housing bills as oppose them

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Just 20% of Greens voters supported blocking the government’s Build to Rent and Help to Buy legislation

More than twice as many voters support parliament passing the federal government’s two stranded housing bills as want them blocked, including a majority of Greens voters, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.

The survey of 1,117 voters found that 48% believe the Greens and Coalition should pass the Labor government’s Help to Buy and Build to Rent legislation, and argue for their own policies at the next federal election. Overall support for blocking the bills was at 22%, with 30% unsure and a margin of error of about 2%.

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Privacy experts shocked as Hobart council agrees to beam live CCTV footage into police station

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Sharing livestream from 330 council-operated cameras with force via ‘portal’ in Hobart police station labelled ‘a massive intrusion on rights’

Police in Hobart have been granted real-time access to footage from hundreds of city council CCTV cameras in a move labelled “so intrusive and oppressive” by the Australian Privacy Foundation.

The CCTV partnership between Tasmania police and the City of Hobart was announced on Thursday but has been operating secretly for weeks.

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