Category Archives: Privacy

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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Meta to push on with plan to use UK Facebook and Instagram posts to train AI

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Move to use shared posts follows information commissioner concerns and sets collision course with EU over privacy

Mark Zuckberg’s Meta is to go ahead with controversial plans to use millions of UK Facebook and Instagram posts to train its artificial intelligence (AI) technology, in a practice that is effectively outlawed under EU privacy laws.

Meta said it had “engaged positively” with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) over the plan, after it paused similar proposals in June in the UK and EU. The pause came after the ICO warned tech firms to respect the privacy of users when building generative AI.

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Starmer’s live facial recognition plan would usher in national ID, campaigners say

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PM accused of ignoring civil rights and aping autocracies as he proposes new powers after far-right unrest

Civil liberties campaigners have said that a proposal made by Keir Starmer on Thursday to expand the use of live facial recognition technology would amount to the effective introduction of a national ID card system based on people’s faces.

Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said it was ironic the new prime minister was suggesting a greater use of facial matching on the same day that an EU-wide law largely banning real-time surveillance technology came into force.

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Fatima Payman admits she ‘upset a few colleagues’ by crossing the floor – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Housing minister Julie Collins is speaking to the ABC RN about Labor’s build-to-rent bill which was knocked back in the Senate yesterday, with the Greens and the Coalition combining to delay it:

What we want to do is get this done. We’ve already been consulting, we announced it in the previous budget. Any delays will actually stop the pipeline of construction and the certainty for the sector.

What we want to do is get more affordable homes and more homes of every type on the ground as quickly as we can.

We’re saying they have to have a minimum of 10% to be eligible for the tax concessions that we’re talking about for each development.

That’s what our consultations and our discussions with the sector have done and, as I said, this is not the only thing we’re doing for affordable homes … My point here is that they continually delay and block housing up every time by coming together and having this unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate, because they’re more interested in votes than they are about people.

We’re not open to negotiation and we want to get this done.

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New York passes laws protecting kids from addictive social media content

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Legislation will limit children’s exposure to computer algorithmic social media feeds and protect their privacy

New York state took novel legislative steps on Friday to limit children’s exposure to computer algorithmic social media feeds, passing two laws to protect children from addictive social media content and to protect their privacy.

The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids Act requires social media companies to restrict addictive feeds on their platforms for users under 18 unless parental consent is granted, and prohibits companies from sending notifications regarding addictive feeds to minors from 12.00am to 6.00am.

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Australian man says border force made him hand over phone passcode by threatening to keep device indefinitely

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Tech entrepreneur who lives in the US says he has been held up at Sydney airport for hours three times in the past year

Australian Border Force officials forced an Australian-US dual national to hand over his passcodes to his phone by threatening to keep the device indefinitely and then searched it out of his view, the man has alleged.

Chris*, an Australian tech entrepreneur who lives in the US with his wife and children, said he has been held up at Sydney airport for hours three times in the past year during trips to visit his family, including most recently just over a week ago.

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Third-party providers a customer data ‘weak spot’, Australian privacy commissioner says

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Carly Kind’s comments come after major leak of customer data collected by IT provider for NSW and ACT clubs

The Australian privacy commissioner has warned third party suppliers are “a real weak spot” for protecting customer privacy after Australian user details were compromised in a leak of supplier data held by NSW and ACT clubs.

Last week more than 1 million people had their personal information including names, addresses, and driver’s licence information exposed after data collected by IT provider Outabox was published online. Outabox’s customers included dozens of clubs in New South Wales, including hospitality giant Merivale.

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Police arrest Sydney man for blackmail over major data breach affecting up to 1 million NSW and ACT residents

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IT provider Outabox, used by dozens of hospitality venues, blamed an ‘unauthorised third party’ for the breach

Police have arrested a Sydney man they expect to charge with blackmail as they investigate a major data breach that saw personal details for up to 1 million New South Wales and ACT residents shared online.

NSW police officers have been working with state, federal and international agencies as they investigate the major breach that is believed to be either blackmail or corporate sabotage after data was published this week.

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Qantas passengers’ personal details exposed as airline app logs users into wrong account

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Airline investigating whether privacy breach allowing customers to view others’ account details was caused by ‘recent system changes’

Potentially thousands of Qantas customers have had their personal details made public via the airline’s app, with some frequent flyers able to view strangers’ account details and possibly make changes to other users’ bookings.

Clare Gemmell from Sydney said that she and four colleagues encountered the problem shortly after 8.30 on Wednesday morning.

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

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Group tells attorney general’s department that not all doxing is harmful and therefore bad or undesirable

Anti-fascist research group the White Rose Society has warned the Australian government that its push for new anti-doxing laws are a “quick fix” for complex problems that could be weaponised against reporting and have negative consequences for society.

In March the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, announced consultation for new laws that would include a right to sue for serious invasion of privacy and a criminal offence of doxing.

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