IP addresses and personal information (was Re: [LINK] Fwd: On Line Opinion - 16 February 2007)

[Irene Graham]

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:53:45 +1100, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

> Irene Graham wrote:
>> On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:11:47 +1100, Howard Lowndes wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:52:38 +1100, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>>>
>>>> The talk I went to by Hitwise was pretty compelling see
>>>> <http://www.hitwise.com.au/products-services/how-we-do-it.php>
>>>>
>>> Tell me where this doesn't breach either or both of the Privacy Act
>>> and the Telecommunications Act:
>>
>>
>> EFA would like to know that as well.
>>
> Apparenthly it complies according to
>
>> PricewaterhouseCoopers Data Integrity and Privacy Audit Report

That does not appear to me to provide information on whether PWC 
investigated the actual technical operation of Hitwise's technology 
operating on ISP's servers, nor any indication of whether PWC shares 
Hitwise's apparent opinion that no IP addresses meet the definition of 
personal information as defined in Australian law.

It seems to me obvious that they could not know how many individuals visit 
particular sites without access to and use of IP addresses.(and Hitwise do 
not suggest otherwise). They may consider that their "partner ISPs" are 
doing that, not them. If so, then it is quite possible in my opinion that 
any ISPs using IP addresses from web proxy logs for that purpose (without 
customer consent to that use of that information from which the ISP can 
identify them) are more probably than not in breach of both the Privacy Act 
and the Telecommunications Act. 

Irene