Latest News
Many Aussies are victims of fraud: ABS
7 June, 2010 - 12:47Nearly one million Australians were victims of personal fraud, the latest annual survey shows, with a combined financial loss of almost one billion dollars.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has published the results of a 2007 personal fraud survey of Australians aged 15 and over in its 2009 Yearbook, released on Friday.
GP, dentist finance records released by mistake
20 May, 2010 - 09:47THE confidential financial records of many South Australian health professionals have been inadvertently revealed by the nation's largest medical financier.
Medfin Finance, a subsidiary of National Australia Bank, this week sent the details of up to 4000 SA doctors' and dentists' bank accounts and borrowings by email to its state members.
Privacy as an afterthought could lead to breaches, Privacy Commissioner tells organisations
11 May, 2010 - 10:28The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has called on organisations to conduct Privacy Impact Assessments when looking to develop new products, services, projects or systems.
"All too often, organisations try to tack on privacy measures after having already designed their projects or systems," Ms Curtis said.
"This could lead to inadequate protection of customers' personal information, as well as leading to privacy breaches.
Are you being private? Test your privacy online!
5 May, 2010 - 09:39This week (May 2 to 8) is Privacy Awareness Week around the Asia Pacific and the region's privacy bodies have developed an online Q&A tool to help people assess how well they protect themselves against identity theft.
Launching the tool in Australia, the Victorian Privacy Commissioner Helen Versey, said: "Users can work through a series of questions on eleven different topics: for instance how well they protect information in their wallet, their mailbox or on their computer. The test takes just a few minutes…
Where's ya bin? Where's ya wheelie bin?
5 May, 2010 - 09:32“Where’s your bin? Where’s your wheelie bin?” so the old joke goes. However with the instances of personal fraud increasing every day, suddenly the question “where’s your wheelie bin” is not so funny.
Spy software watches BlackBerry, privacy advocates too
30 April, 2010 - 16:08US software firm Retina-X Studios has released a more vigilant version of its Mobile Spy program that captures every email and picture from BlackBerry smartphones, prompting Australian privacy advocates to call for order.
"We invite you to open your eyes to the real actions of what your child or employee does on your BlackBerry device," Retina-X chief executive James Johns said in a release.