By: Rob Pulham, Cameron Abbott, and Annaliese Filippis (Graduate, Melbourne)
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), Australia’s privacy regulator, is conducting its first ever privacy compliance sweep, as of this January. The compliance sweep will include a review of the privacy policies of businesses that collect information in person.
Read MoreThe Federal Court has ordered Australian Clinical Labs (ACL) to pay AU$5.8 million in civil penalties following a 2022 data breach involving its then-newly acquired Medlab Pathology business. The breach affected over 223,000 individuals whose data was accessed and infiltrated by malicious actors and is one of Australia’s most significant healthcare cyber incidents.
Read MoreBy: Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham, and Stephanie Mayhew
Tranche 2 of the Australian Privacy Act reforms is expected soon (perhaps imminently), following comments from the new attorney general in the media that suggested the time for conversation and for lobbying is over. The attorney general noted in an interview last month on Sky News that the highly anticipated “second tranche” of Australian privacy law reform is coming, saying “Australians are sick and tired of their personal data being exploited” and “not being protected,” and that “we will not have our privacy reforms dictated by multinational tech giants.”
Read MoreThe European Data Protection Board recently published its draft Guidelines 02/2025, which remain open to consultation until 09 June 2025. Stakeholders in the blockchain industry are encouraged to submit any observations before the finalization of these Guidelines.
Read MoreBy: Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham, Stephanie Mayhew and Emre Cakmakcioglu
In Australia, last week was the 2025 Privacy Awareness Week (PAW), with this year’s theme ‘Privacy – it’s everyone’s business’. Among other things in PAW, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) produced a Privacy Foundations self-assessment tool, which provides a privacy maturity score on the basis of tenets such as Accountability, Transparency, Collection and Data breach management. The tool, and PAW more broadly emphasise that privacy is not just about compliance, but good business and building trust. NSW, Vic and QLD state governments have each run parallel PAW events.
Read MoreOn 11 February 2024, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted a new statement on age assurance. This statement, while not legally binding, will guide the enforcement of age-gating methods across the EU. Age assurance refers to the methods used to determine an individual’s age or age range with varying levels of confidence or certainty.
Read MoreBy: Cameron Abbott, Stephanie Mayhew, and Rob Pulham
The long-awaited privacy reform has finally been introduced into the Australian Parliament today with the introduction of the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. Described as ‘Tranche 1’ of the reforms, the Bill introduces significant uplifts to several aspects of Australia’s privacy laws.
Read MoreBy: Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham, and Lauren Hrysomallis
There appears to be a further delay to the long-anticipated privacy law reform legislation, most recently expected to be unveiled this month. But even with this delay the wait won’t be long; we could see a draft bill introduced in as little as three weeks’ time.
Read MoreBy: Cameron Abbott and Rob Pulham
In their recent article available here, Joseph Wylie, Kenn Brotman, and J. Morgan Dixon from our Chicago office discuss what changes to privacy law in Illinois will mean for company’s collecting or sharing individual’s biometric data.
By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham, and Stephanie Mayhew
In 2023 the Attorney-General’s Department released the “Privacy Act Review Report” (Review Report), which considered whether the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and its enforcement mechanisms are fit for purpose in an environment where Australians now live much of their lives online and their information is collected and used for a myriad of purposes in the digital economy.
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