[LINK] Clarke unleashes blast on privacy

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Tue Nov 17 09:19:42 AEDT 2009


At 9:07 +1100 17/11/09, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
><brd>
>1. Congratulations Roger
>2. What do you really think? Don't hold back, you can tell us, you're
>amongst friends....

I agonised about accepting, because I knew I'd have to be polite  (:-)}

http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/APM-091112.html

____________________________________________________________________


>Clarke unleashes blast on privacy
>The Australian
>17 November 2009
>Karen Deane
>
>Australian Privacy Medal winner Roger Clarke has accused businesses and
>government agencies of "investing in image and "playing the public for
>fools" over privacy concerns in the surveillance age.
>
>In a broadside unleashed at the annual Privacy Awards dinner in Sydney,
>Dr Clarke said organisations had become "habituated to hands-off stances
>by parliaments and by regulators", and simply "got on and did" whatever
>they wanted.
>
>"Public thoroughfares are being converted from anonymous use to
>identified use, and not one privacy or human rights commissioner takes
>any interest," he said. "Police, working through CrimTrac, regard the
>building of a national vehicle surveillance database as unthreatening to
>democracy. And agencies demand access to body fluids and people's
>biometric measurements on the flimsiest of excuses, and in the absence
>of any effective regulatory framework."
>
>Dr Clarke, who is chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation, a visiting
>professor in computing science at the University of N SW and the
>Australian National University, and a private consultant, received the
>prestigious award from Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig in
>recognition of more than 35 years work in the field.
>
>Dr Clarke said public interest representatives were being kept at arm's
>length, and disenfranchised by terms such as "the same old faces".
>
>"Organisations as diverse as the Human Services Department, the ABC, the
>National E-Health Transition Authority and the major banks act as though
>advocates have horns on their heads, and do everything they can to avoid
>engagement," he said. But the foundation "advocates all wear suits, they
>are conservative, and they don't have horns".
>
>Debacles such as the Howard government's ultimately dumped Access Card
>program occurred "when public servants were allowed to get utterly out
>of touch with the real world".
>
>"There will be more massive disappointments, not least in the e-health
>arena, because the lessons aren't being learnt"
>
>--
>
>Regards
>brd
>
>Bernard Robertson-Dunn
>Canberra Australia
>brd at iimetro.com.au
>
>_______________________________________________
>Link mailing list
>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University



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