Office of the Australian Information Commissioner | Departments/Agencies

Teenager allegedly behind WA Health breach

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Stephen Easton

Features

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

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…

Information Commissioner puts focus on prevention as cyber criminals target human vulnerability

By Shannon Jenkins

Communications & Technology

The Australian Information Commissioner has called for better staff training to prevent data breaches, following a new report.

Keeping names of public servants out of FOI: privacy protection ... or just a bit precious?

By Stephen Easton

Communications & Technology

It is standard practice to block out the names of all but the most senior public servants from documents released under the Freedom of Information…

Almost 1000 data breaches in a year, and citizens don't know who to trust with privacy

By Stephen Easton

Communications & Technology

There were 964 data breaches reported to the federal regulator in the first year of mandatory reporting rules and “malicious or criminal attacks” were behind…

It's Privacy Awareness Week for public servants, campaigning pollies get a free pass

By Stephen Easton

Communications & Technology

Privacy commissioners of four states and the Commonwealth are celebrating their week on the awareness-raising calendar, at the pointy end of an election campaign that…

John McMillan bats away claims of apprehended bias against John Lloyd

By Stephen Easton

Federal

The experienced jurist responds to the former APS commissioner's claims that he exceeded his brief and that he should have been excluded due to apprehended bias…

'Unfair and biased': John Lloyd gets the last word

By Stephen Easton

Federal

The former Australian public service commissioner has accused the merit protection commissioner's office of smearing his reputation.

Right to Know Day: information commissioner addresses federal FOI officers

By Angelene Falk

Federal

The Australian Information Commissioner gave a keynote address to federal FOI officers at a meeting of the Information Contact Officers Network (ICON) this week.