Source: New Zealand Privacy Commissioner – Blog
Welcome to our latest round-up of privacy news stories for the week.
Lessons for all businesses in Trade Me’s privacy fail
Trade Me is in hot water with the Privacy Commissioner after it decided that an “opt-out of marketing” checkbox did not cover its own in-house advertising messages and sent them to all members. The Commissioner has found that Trade Me has fallen short of its legal obligations. Read more here.
CovidCard: The cases for and against
The outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland has brought urgency to the debate over whether there is a better way to quickly identify people who may have been exposed to the virus. Advocates of a Bluetooth ‘CovidCard’ argue that it might be the only way to ensure everyone is traceable, but critics worry about the practicalities. Read more here.
Privacy concerns over Australian contact tracing
Australian businesses are being warned to be careful about how they collect and store people’s names and phone numbers amid privacy concerns if contact lists are left out in the open, or staff misuse the data. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has released guidance for businesses collecting data as part of their Covid-safe plans. Read more here.
Peters’ conflicting claims in super leak case
NZ First leader Winston Peters has made allegations in Parliament over the leaking of his superannuation overpayments, after previously telling the Court of Appeal that he could not know who was responsible. The allegations may affect the declarations he is seeking in the Court of Appeal case. Read more here.
UK Home Office to scrap ‘racist algorithm’ for visa applicants
The United Kingdom’s Home Office is to scrap a controversial decision-making algorithm that migrants’ rights campaigners claim created a “hostile environment” for people applying for visas. The campaigners claim that the decision to drop the algorithm represents the UK’s first successful challenge to an AI decision-making system. Read more here.
AI-generated text is the scariest deepfake of all
When pundits and researchers tried to guess what sort of manipulation campaigns might threaten the 2018 and 2020 US elections, misleading AI-generated videos often topped the list. Now, another form of AI-generated media is making headlines: deepfake text. Read more here.
Image credit: Ferruginous Thrush via John James Audubon’s Birds of America
