Oliver Luft reports: The National Union of Journalists has become the latest organisation to criticise the Press Complaints Commission’s inquiry into alleged phone hacking by the News of the World. Delegates attending the union’s annual policy-making conference this weekend passed a motion condemning the PCC for its “failure to mount a proper investigation into the…
Editorial: GPS and Privacy Rights
A New York Times editorial about the Antoine Jones case and warrantless GPS surveillance. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments last week about whether police should have to get a warrant before putting a GPS device on a suspect’s car. It is a cutting-edge civil liberties question that has divided the courts…
JP: Overhaul the privacy law (Editorial)
This editorial appeared in the Japan Times: The intentions behind the Personal Information Protection Law, which went into effect in April 2005, are good, but it has contributed to a tendency for organizations to withhold benign information that has significantly useful social value. Ms. Mizuho Fukushima, state minister in charge of consumer affairs, who has…
AU: Secret personnel records back at DFAT
Philip Dorling reports: The Community and Public Sector Union has called for two independent inquiries into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s system of secret personnel files. DFAT staff have expressed concern that the department has quietly re-established a system of secret personnel files similar to a highly controversial system, known as the ”X-files”,…