The Australian Privacy Commissioner has released a report into the Department of Immigration and Border Protection having breached the privacy of asylum seekers in February 2014. Partner Michael Pattison and Associate Priyanka Nair report on the Commissioner’s findings and the lessons for all organisations on taking ‘reasonable steps’ to protect the personal information which they hold.

CAMAC and the FSI have acknowledged that the current Australian regulatory settings are hostile to crowd sourced equity funding. A recently released Treasury Discussion Paper has considered three options for law reform and what each might mean for the development of this innovative form of capital raising.

The Federal Government has announced new regulatory measures that it hopes will create a more competition-friendly telecommunications environment and ensure that the National Broadband Network (NBN) is rolled out across the nation as quickly as possible. Two new Government policy papers released last week set out the new measures. Partner Ian McGill and Associate Byron Frost provide an overview of key developments.

Optus has become the first organisation to enter into an enforceable undertaking with the Privacy Commissioner since reforms to the Privacy Act took effect in March 2014. Partner Michael Pattison and Associate Byron Frost examine the circumstances surrounding Optus’s voluntary data breach notifications, the terms of the undertaking and its significance.

The State Council has called for local governments and ministries to develop the cloud computing industry in order to harness its ability to optimise the allocation of IT and data resources in accordance with market demand.

Telecommunications industry body the Communications Alliance has released a draft industry code that would introduce a copyright infringement notice scheme for internet service providers. The scheme is an incremental development of existing telecommunications and copyright regulation that seeks to allow rights holders to better use existing legal avenues to defend their rights without fundamentally altering the liability of internet service providers. Partner Andrew Wiseman, Senior Associate Matt Vitins and Lawyer Ben Murphy report.

The Federal Government, in a surprising and highly significant move for companies in Australia, has committed to enacting a mandatory data breach notification scheme before the end of 2015, which will apply to all Australian companies currently subject to the Privacy Act. The proposal is not limited to telecommunications service providers and will represent a significant new compliance burden and increase the overall cost to companies of handling data security incidents. Partner Gavin Smith, Senior Associate Valeska Bloch and Lawyer Isabelle Guyot report.

President Barack Obama has issued an Executive Order enabling the US Department of Treasury to implement targeted sanctions against foreign individuals or entities whose cyber-enabled activities result in significant threats to the national security, foreign policy, economic health or financial stability of the US, irrespective of their nationality. Partners Rachel Nicolson and Gavin Smith, Associate Andrew Wilcock and Law Graduate Alice Crawford report on the possible implications of this novel measure.

In an effort to reduce the rate of online copyright infringement, the Australian Government has introduced a Bill that will allow copyright owners to apply for an injunction requiring internet service providers to take steps to block piracy websites from their users. Senior Associate Jonathan Adamopoulos and Lawyer William Coote report on the features and implications of the Bill.

Telecommunications and internet service providers will incur significant new compliance costs under the Federal Government’s controversial new data retention laws. Following a wave of criticism of the Government’s original proposals, a number of important changes were made to the original Bill during its passage through Parliament, including the introduction of safeguards on access to the retained data by government agencies and concessions made to protect journalists’ confidential sources. Partner Gavin Smith, Lawyer Brydon Wang, and Law Graduate Leah Wickman report on what the new regime means for the telecommunications industry.

Key cyber risks faced by ASIC’s ‘regulated population’, as well as the legal and compliance obligations to manage those risks, are highlighted in a new ASIC report. ASIC also identifies steps entities can take to address the risks. The report marks a growing focus on cyber security issues by ASIC, which is consistent with an increased focus on this area by regulators globally. Partner Michael Morris and Senior Associate Simun Soljo report.

In a decision published this week, the Australian Privacy Commissioner has clarified that ‘metadata’ may be personal information, when an organisation has the capacity and resources to link that information to an individual. Partner Michael Pattison, Associate Priyanka Nair and Law Graduate Leah Wickman report on the Commissioner’s determination, which found that Telstra breached the Privacy Act by failing to provide an individual with access to his metadata.

The Australian Government has released its alpha Digital Service Standard, which establishes criteria that all Australian digital government services must meet to ensure they are simpler, faster and easier to use. The Digital Service Standard is part of the Coalition government’s push to deliver government services digitally from start to finish. In this article, Partner Ian McGill, Senior Associate Valeska Bloch and Associate Byron Frost examine the Digital Service Standard and its impact on government agencies and service providers.

Telecommunications industry body the Communications Alliance has submitted an updated Copyright Notice Scheme to allow rights holders to better use existing legal avenues to defend their rights. The updated Notice Scheme resolves a number of issues that were left open when the first draft of the Notice Scheme was published in February. Partner Andrew Wiseman and Lawyer Ben Murphy report.

With a $5.5 billion ‘Jobs and Small Business Package’, Treasurer Joe Hockey placed start-ups and small businesses front-and-centre of the Australian Federal Government’s 2015-16 Budget. Partner Gavin Smith, Senior Associates Valeska Bloch and Shaun Cartoon and Associate Tom Griffin look at the key elements affecting start-ups.

There’s an assumption that everyone is on social media these days, even when they’re at work – and they probably are. Many startups embrace social media, but, as an employer, you will need to understand and manage the risks that come with the use of social media in the workplace.

A current trend in our society is our willingness to share, whether it be our home, office, or our time. This ‘sharing economy’ is set to grow, and with that growth comes increased ATO scrutiny.

Grasping tax in the early days of your business is essential – you want to ensure you are keeping everything above board, while not paying unnecessary tax or, importantly, missing opportunities to apply tax offset mechanisms to your business.

To coincide with Privacy Awareness Week, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has released a number of business resources, a Privacy Management Framework to assist businesses to comply with their obligations under the Australian Privacy Principles, and the results of its audit of the online privacy policies of 20 Australian and international organisations. The OAIC has also made some announcements regarding its next areas of focus. Partner Gavin Smith, Senior Associate Valeska Bloch and Lawyer Tom Kavanagh report on these updates and how they might affect your business.

GST is to be applied to the supply of services and other intangibles by non-residents to Australian consumers under legislation proposed to apply from 1 July 2017. This will include the supply of digital products and the supply of other services. The liability for GST on such supplies made through an electronic marketplace will be shifted from the supplier to the operator of the marketplace in certain circumstances. Partner Adrian Chek and Senior Associate Jennee Chan report.