Facial recognition
Other tech

Australian regulators gave up on legal action against facial recognition startup Clearview AI as the rest of the world takes the controversial tech startup to task

- August 23, 2024 4 MIN READ

The office of the Australian Information Commissioner announced this week it would be taking no further action against facial recognition company Clearview AI. This marked a significant victory for one of the most controversial technology companies in the world. In 2021, Australia’s privacy regulator ruled Clearview AI broke privacy laws for scraping millions of photographs… Read more »

Advanced facial recognition technology identifies the face of woman in bustling crowd, utilizing the power of big data analysis scanning for enhanced authentication through face. generative ai
Data

A national survey of Australians found they’re into facial recognition for ID, but surveillance is a no go

- August 7, 2024 3 MIN READ

Automated facial recognition is becoming widespread in Australia. The technology has already been used by retail outlets, sport stadiums and casinos around the country. And in November, the Australian government’s digital identification system will be expanded, after new laws passed parliament earlier in the year. As the technology becomes less expensive and more powerful, it… Read more »

Google Incognito
Global tech

Turns out Google kept private browsing data to sell – but will now delete it as part of a class action settlement

- April 3, 2024 3 MIN READ

Google has agreed to delete data collected on users while they were in private browsing mode and properly inform them of how “incognito” this service actually is as part of a class action lawsuit settlement. Google-owner Alphabet settled the class action lawsuit, brought on by users of its Incognito private browsing mode in 2020 late last year,… Read more »

DoorDash delivery
Global tech

SLAPDASH: Food delivery giant DoorDash served up $2m fine for more than 1 million spam messages

- August 16, 2023 2 MIN READ

Food delivery platform DoorDash has copped a $2,011,320 penalty from the communications regulator for sending more than one million texts and emails in breach of Australian spam rules. The NSYE-listed tech company, which launched aggressively in Australian in 2019 amid complaints from restaurateurs that they’d been signed up to the platform without their permission and… Read more »

data in glasses, surveillance
Politics

Australian authorities love asking Big Tech for user data – 4x more than the global average

- March 23, 2023 2 MIN READ

Australian politicians have another way to brag about the nation being a global leader, although they probably won’t – it’s all about being a surveillance state. A new report on data surveillance from VPN provider Surfshark, reveals that government requests for user data from big tech companies by local law enforcement and other agencies are four… Read more »

cyber hacking
Politics

The Optus data breach shows why Australia needs mandatory disclosure laws

- October 20, 2022 3 MIN READ

The Optus data breach, which has affected close to 10 million Australians, has sparked calls for changes to Australia’s privacy laws, placing limits on what and for how long organisations can hold our personal data. Equally important is to strengthen obligations for organisations to publicly disclose data breaches. Optus made a public announcement about its… Read more »

cattle, wrangle, cowboy
Business

The Australian government is going after social media companies with $10 million fines for privacy breaches

- October 26, 2021 3 MIN READ

The government is getting ready to hand out $10 million fines for companies mismanaging user information with new legislation targeting social media companies. A draft of the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enhancing Online Privacy and Other Measures) Bill 2021 – or the Online Privacy Bill for short – was circulated on Monday. The bill aims to… Read more »

Mark Zuckerberg
Global tech

Facebook clamps down on underage ad targeting after Australian research revealed children were shown gambling, smoking & alcohol ads

- July 28, 2021 3 MIN READ

Instagram’s parent company, Facebook will default set Instagram accounts for users under 16 to private, and restrict targeted advertising to them following an Australian expose that revealed how easy it was for marketers to show smoking, gambling, extreme weight loss, and alcohol advertising to underage users. The social media giant announced the changes in a… Read more »

Uber
Data

Investigation finds Uber ‘interfered’ with the privacy of 1.2 million Australians following 2016 cyber attack

- July 27, 2021 3 MIN READ

A three-year investigation into a cyber attack that stole data from Uber belonging to 1.2 million Australia has found that the US tech company failed to act appropriately in response and paid the cyber criminals responsible a bug bounty for the breach. Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk’s review said Uber “interfered” with the privacy of around… Read more »

Mark Zuckerberg
Data

Apple’s latest iOS update has app tracking controls that threaten Facebook’s revenue. Here’s how it works and whether you should you use it

- April 29, 2021 4 MIN READ

Apple users across the globe are adopting the latest operating system update, called iOS 14.5, featuring the now-obligatory new batch of emojis. But there’s another change that’s arguably less fun but much more significant for many users: the introduction of “app tracking transparency”. This feature promises to usher in a new era of user-oriented privacy,… Read more »

Topics

The ACS has produced a road map for privacy in data sharing

- December 4, 2019 2 MIN READ

Tech association ACS has produced a report on the way forward in a world of data sharing, outlining a basis for balancing the need for governments and business to share information while maintaining citizens’ privacy. The  Privacy Preserving Data Sharing Frameworks report, released at ACS’s Reimagination Thought Leaders Conference in Melbourne today, concluded Australia should… Read more »

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