[LINK] 'Public' may still be private [was: Google StreetView Launched in Oz]

[Jan Whitaker]

At 01:09 PM 5/08/2008, Stephen Wilson wrote:

>But we digress. My point was to explore whether or not "public" data can
>still be counted as private?

Roger will need to jump in here because I believe the distinction 
isn't 'public' data versus 'private' data, but simply personally 
identifiable data. We are required to provide personal data to 
government agencies that are then required to make it publicly 
available by law -- all the registers, real property transactions, 
legal as in court information. Those are still personal information 
collections. The collecting organisation must comply with the privacy 
law UNLESS it is superceded by a different law. That's one of the 
reasons our privacy laws are weak. They can easily be overridden and 
the individual has a false sense of privacy as a result unless they 
are aware that another law has given permission to the entity that 
has that information to behave outside the privacy principles. That's 
one of the reasons some government projects require special 
legislation or else they couldn't do what they want to do. It 
requires that Parliament go on record as allowing/supporting the 
non-compliant project/process.

Unfortunately, the definition of privacy in the Privacy Act 1988 
primarily deals with information, not the broad range of privacy we 
as individuals would like to think we have. There was a case of using 
the law against trespass to allow a civil action for privacy, but I 
don't think that succeeded. I may be wrong. The government can give 
its agencies privacy invasive activities at the stroke of a pen. ASIO 
and other LEAs have powers because of that. We just trust that they 
won't abuse those powers.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
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"No Longer Anonymous, of Berwick"

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
guests. - JW, May, 2007
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