Home Affairs to task senior public servant with addressing FoI compliance issues Monday February 1, 2021 By Shannon Jenkins Federal The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has recommended the Department of Home Affairs appoint an ‘information champion’ after an investigation found the department has…
Most federal government data breaches caused by human error, report finds Friday January 29, 2021 By Shannon Jenkins Communications & Technology The federal government has for the first time been named as one of the top five industry sectors to report data breaches.
Home Affairs ordered to pay asylum seekers over data breach Wednesday January 27, 2021 By Shannon Jenkins Federal Compensation ranging from $500 to more than $20,000 would be paid on a case-by-case basis, and would be assessed using five categories of loss or…
Australian Conservation Foundation audit of FOI requests finds environment minister, dept & agencies stifling access Friday January 15, 2021 By Chris Woods Editors' Picks Environment minister Sussan Ley refused outright 39 freedom of information requests in the last financial year, while granting just one in full and three in…
National privacy regulator set to publish COVID-19 app investigation findings Thursday November 19, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins Communications & Technology The incoming report will contain findings and recommendations from the first in a series of five assessments, which Angelene Falk says have examined compliance and…
Trust in federal government departments’ handling of personal information declining, survey finds Thursday September 24, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins Community & Social Trust in personal information handling by federal government departments has gone down by 14% since 2007, while trust in companies in general has declined by…
New resource helps agencies know when to conduct privacy-impact assessments Monday September 14, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins Federal The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has launched a new resource to help federal government agencies determine when they should conduct a privacy-impact…
Teenager allegedly behind WA Health breach Wednesday July 22, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins Communications & Technology The website that published sensitive messages sent between staff from the Western Australian Department of Health was run by a teenager.
Aus, UK privacy commissioners investigating facial recognition company Friday July 10, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins Communications & Technology The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has joined forces with its UK counterpart to investigate facial recognition company Clearview AI.
Australian Information Commissioner to sue Facebook Tuesday March 10, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins Federal The Australian Information Commissioner is taking Facebook to court for allegedly breaching the privacy of more than 300,000 Australians through an app related to the…
Privacy commissioner launches inquiry into police use of facial recognition software Thursday January 30, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins Communications & Technology The Australian privacy commissioner will investigate whether a facial recognition app utilised by 600 American police departments is being used by police in Australia. Facial…
A shot across the bow: Home Affairs under investigation for persistent breaches of FOI Act Friday October 25, 2019 By Stephen Easton Federal Information commissioner Angelene Falk has fired a warning shot at the Australian Public Service over transparency with the announcement that she is investigating the Department…
The Department of the Environment and Energy has been breaching the FOI Act for 10 months now Wednesday October 16, 2019 By Stephen Easton Communications & Technology The Department of the Environment and Energy has been in breach of the Freedom of Information Act for almost 10 months. That's how long it's…
Premium Insights and analysis Public servants tell harrowing tales of harassment after a mention in an FOI release. Their leaders want to shield them from the trolls, but anonymity comes with a price Wednesday September 25, 2019 By Stephen Easton Career Advice The Australian government's guidelines for dealing with Freedom of Information requests help balance many of the competing interests that come with having a democratic, accountable…
Australian public servants are uniting to demand a change to FOI guidelines Tuesday September 24, 2019 By Stephen Easton Federal Federal public service leaders want the official FOI guidelines changed to support their standard practice of shielding the names and contact details of staff below…