privacy Archives

A US Stripe investor launched an extraordinary ‘Reds under the beds’ spray against Airwallex – and the fintech’s cofounders joined in on X to deny Chinese access to data

Simon Thomsen - December 3, 2025 4 MIN READ

Unless you’ve stayed on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X – previously known as Twitter – you probably missed an extraordinary rant from US investor Keith Rabois claiming that “Airwallex has become a Chinese backdoor into sensitive American data like from AI labs and defense contractors”. The former PayPal exec – yes he’s part of… Read more »

Cyber security

If you’re selling your old laptop or phone, there’s a 90% chance you’re handing over your data too

Ritesh Chugh - April 11, 2025 3 MIN READ

You’re about to recycle your laptop or your phone, so you delete all your photos and personal files. Maybe you even reset the device to factory settings. You probably think your sensitive data is now safe. But there is more to be done: hackers may still be able to retrieve passwords, documents or bank details,… Read more »

Data

Meta just got off cheaply in a $50 million compensation deal over data scraping scandal

Simon Thomsen - December 17, 2024 3 MIN READ

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has struck a $50 million deal with the Australian Information Commissioner to settle a Federal Court case over privacy breach involving the Cambridge Analytica political scandal. While it’s the second largest settlement struck by Meta over the matter, its a fraction of the US$725 million (A$1.14bn) the tech giant paid to… Read more »

Cyber security

Australia’s digital ID plan doesn’t meet global privacy standards- here’s what the government need to do to fix that

The Conversation - October 30, 2024 3 MIN READ

Australia’s new digital ID system promises to transform the way we live. All of our key documents, such as driver’s licences and Medicare cards, will be in a single digital wallet, making it easier for us to access a range of services. The federal government is still developing the system, with a pilot expected to… Read more »

Business

OG biotech 23andMe is heading to bankruptcy, so what does that mean for the DNA of 14 million users?

Megan Prictor - October 21, 2024 4 MIN READ

Since it was founded nearly two decades ago, 23andMe has grown into one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world. Millions of people have used its simple genetic testing service, which involves ordering a saliva test, spitting into a tube, and sending it back to the company for a detailed DNA analysis. But now… Read more »

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

Rita Matulionyte - 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 »

Data

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

Mark Andrejevic - 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 »

Global tech

Cookie plan crumbles: Google breaks privacy promise to end third-party tracking

Denham Sadler, Information Age - July 27, 2024 3 MIN READ

Google has ditched its long-running plan to get rid of third-party tracking cookies on Chrome, after more than four years of promising to do so to improve online privacy. The tech giant revealed that it would no longer be banning third-party cookies from next year as previously planned in a Privacy Sandbox blog post, and will… Read more »

Global tech

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

Denham Sadler, Information Age - 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 »

Global tech

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

Simon Thomsen - 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 »

Politics

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

Simon Thomsen - 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 »

Politics

The Optus data breach shows why Australia needs mandatory disclosure laws

The Conversation - 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 »

Business

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

Casey Tonkin - 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 »

Global tech

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

Simon Thomsen - 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 »

Data

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

Simon Thomsen - 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 »