Karen Dearne reports:
Privacy audits of Customs use of Passenger Name Record data supplied by airlines for advance screening purposes did not take place last year, despite being required under a renewed agreement with the European Union.
Just last week, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd revealed that the Gillard government had quietly signed a revised Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreement with the EU in September.
[…]
And the most recent audit – completed in July 2010 – has not been released, with Customs requesting the office not to publish “either the full report or an abridged report” due to the “classified content” of the material.
“The Privacy Commissioner agreed not to publish the report,” the OAIC says.
Read more on The Australian.
How is the public to be assured that adequate privacy protections are being implemented if required audits are not conducted and they have been denied access to the audit report that was conducted? What the hell kind of lack of transparency is this?!