Companies will face penalties of up to $50 million for serious privacy law breaches under legislation to be introduced the Attorney-General following data breaches by Optus, Medibank and Woolworths unit MyDeal.
Optus has been hit with a class action-style complaint over a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of up to 1o million current and former customers.
Telecommunications giant Optus may face a class action over a cyberattack that left the data of up to 10 million current and former customers exposed.
Retail giants Bunnings and Kmart are facing an investigation by the country’s privacy regulator for using facial recognition technology in their stores.
Facebook has filed an application with the High Court seeking to overturn a judgment that found it can be sued in Australia for alleged privacy violations over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
US-based facial recognition software company Clearview AI has been ordered to cease collecting facial images from individuals in Australia and destroy all the data it has collected within the country.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is investigating whether Optus breached privacy law after the telco wrongly published customers’ personal details in the White Pages in 2019.
Facebook has accused the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of overstating the amount of data it collected on users through its discontinued Onavo Protect mobile app, and says the collection was allowed under its terms of service.
The Federal government could be on the hook for millions in compensation to almost 1,300 asylum seekers following a ruling by the Privacy Commissioner that the government interfered with refugee privacy by publicly disclosing personal information, the first finding in a representative action that individuals affected by a data breach are entitled to compensation for non-economic loss.
Facebook will press on with its argument that it can’t be sued in Australia by the country’s privacy commissioner for alleged disclosure of users’ personal data, after a judge found there was enough evidence the social media giant conducted business in the country by installing and operating cookies on the devices of Australia users.