News

Richard MacManus Newsroom, 18 December 2018 www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/12/17/363412/australias-new-encryption-law-threatens-nz-cloud-data Following the introduction of the controversial “Access and Assistance” bill in Australia, which requires any organisation operating in the country to give the Australian government access to their IT system if requested, there have been concerns raised about the privacy and security of the vast amount of data from New Zealand being stored in Australia.

Toby Manhire The Spinoff, 13 December 2018 NZ courts banned naming Grace Millane’s accused killer. Google just emailed it out

Toby Manhire The Spinoff, 27 November 2018 www.thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-11-2018/andrew-little-insists-nz-does-give-a-shit-about-the-impact-of-facebook-on-democracy/ New Zealand’s justice minister, Andrew Little, has stated he is “watching very keenly” international efforts, such as those of the “international grand committee on disinformation and ‘fake news’”, to hold Facebook accountable for the impact that fake news spread on the platform has had on democracy as well as on how they treat their users’ data.

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Steve Kroft CBS News, 11 November 2018 www.cbsnews.com/news/gdpr-the-law-that-lets-europe-take-back-their-data-from-big-tech-companies-60-minutes/ A new law, called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), enacted by the European Parliament has given consumers in Europe greater ownership over their personal data. The law restricts how technology companies collect and monetise their users’ personal data by ensuring consumers have an understanding about the data collected on them so that they can decide

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Richard MacManus Newsroom, 12 November 2018 www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/11/11/312796/how-government-algorithms-are-judging-you A report released by Statistics NZ has concluded that, despite the increased reliance on algorithms for decision-making, New Zealand’s government agencies still do have enough human oversight. However, there are still concerns about how these algorithms, which use statistical probabilities derived from the population, are used to inform decisions made on individuals.

Grant Bradley New Zealand Herald, 25 October 2018 www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12148399 Concerns have been raised in regard to the unauthorised access to the personal data of some Cathy Pacific passengers following an international data hack. New Zealand passengers could be among those whose personal information was compromised. In response to this event Cathy Pacific has set up both a help line number and website to assist worried

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Public submissions on the Privacy Bill may be found on the Justice Committee of Parliament’s home page, the link to which is below: www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_77618/tab/submissionsandadvice

Shane Cowlishaw Newsroom, 31 May 2018 www.newsroom.co.nz/@news/2018/05/30/112284/curran-google-facebook-experimenting-on-us# Clare Curran, the Minister responsible for Digital Media, has expressed her concern over how companies, like Google and Facebook, are using the data they collect on their users and how this usage may be in breach of the user’s human rights.  Clare Curran also stated how these concerns are shared by the digital rights working group,

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New Zealand Herald, 28 March 2018 www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12021698 The Privacy Commissioner has concluded that Facebook breached the New Zealand Privacy Act following an incident in which Facebook denied a complainant access to personal information held on multiple other Facebook users.

David Vaile The Conversation, 22 March 2018 www.theconversation.com/australia-should-strengthen-its-privacy-laws-and-remove-exemptions-for-politicians-93717 Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal in the United States, there are calls to remove the exemption that Australian political parties receive from complying with privacy laws. Additionally, Australia’s privacy laws need to be updated to bring them on a par with privacy laws in other countries, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.