Privacy laws gutted in Australia's court ruling on 'personal information'

In possibly Australia's most important privacy case to date, a Federal Court ruling Thursday dealt a severe blow to Australia’s information privacy laws by narrowing the definition of "personal information."

Australia's data privacy laws only protect "personal information," which is defined by whether a person is identified or identifiable from data.

By reasoning that data is only "personal information" if a person is the actual subject matter of that information, the court's decision means "personal information" may not include data that only reveals identity if linked with other data.

This means certain data held by Telstra, including IP addresses, URLs (websites) visited and geolocation data, are not protected by Australian privacy law. They are not subject to any restrictions on processing or disclosure to other entities. Read more...