An Australian Computer Law Journal

The most recent issue of the Journal of the Australian Society for Computers and the Law is available here:  http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ANZCompuLawJl/recent.html

This journal includes articles on privacy law and cybersecurity law.

U.S. Privacy Legislation - or lack of it

In January, the NY Times published a long article on Tech predictions for 2021.  There was a section on privacy laws, that was U.S. focused but interesting reading.  An extract:

Lawmakers will take on comprehensive federal privacy legislation. (Hopefully.)

Greg Bensinger, member of the New York Times editorial board:

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have indicated that they suddenly care about Americans’ privacy rights online. I am looking forward to them putting their money where their mouth is in 2021 by rolling out comprehensive federal privacy legislation.

Is this a pipe dream? Yes. But if anything good comes from backlash against technology companies, I hope it’s that consumers have more control over the rights to their own data.

Landmark White data breach court case

About two years ago, Landmark White (a property valuation firm in Australia) was subject to a number of cyber security incidents.  Justice moves slowly.

Landmark White’s cyber security standards will come under the spotlight this week, as the trial kicks off of an IT contractor accused of stealing customer data from the firm and putting it on the dark web.

See https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/landmark-white-data-breach-trial-begins-20210304-p577sx

Patentable Subject Matter in Australia

The Federal Court of Australia has sided with the Patents Office and upheld a rejection of a patent application for an invention that improves the timeliness and accuracy of risk information.  It was decided by the judge that the claimed invention was merely a business method or scheme for sharing and completing work place health and safety documents, and was thus unpatentable.

See Repipe Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Patents (No 3) [2021] FCA 31  https://jade.io/article/783336

Amazon's patent rejected in Australia

Amazon was refused a patent in Australia on the grounds that the invention was not patentable subject matter.

See Amazon Technologies, Inc. [2021] APO 7  https://jade.io/article/785911

The patent application was directed to the field of computer resource virtualization.  Providers, such as Amazon, manage large-scale computing resources that can be accessed on demand by their many customers via virtual machines.  This allows various computing resources to be efficiently and securely shared by multiple customers. 

New European Data Breach Notification Guidelines

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has recently published guidelines with examples for data breach notification under the GDPR.

The Guidelines set out common types of data breaches, such as ransomware, lost or stolen devices, social engineering attacks and the like, and set out case studies to clarify notification and remediation obligations.

See https://edpb.europa.eu/sites/edpb/files/consultation/edpb_guidelines_202101_databreachnotificationexamples_v1_en.pdf

Did Facebook overpay in privacy settlement to protect Zuckerberg?

According to Reuters, Facebook Inc may have paid $4.9 billion more than the maximum penalty it faced under a settlement agreement with regulators related to allegations it mishandled user privacy, according to a recent court ruling.

The U.S. court cited a paper by Gibson Dunn attorneys when directing Facebook to turn over documents to shareholders who are trying to determine if Facebook overpaid to protect Zuckerberg.

“The documents already produced provide no insight into why Facebook would pay more than its (apparently) maximum exposure to settle a claim,” said the court.

See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-settlement-idUSKBN2AB01P

Can an AI machine be an inventor?

The Australian Patents Office has decided that an AI machine cannot be an inventor for the purposes of granting a patent.

"Section 15(1) is inconsistent with an artificial intelligence machine being treated as an inventor, since it is not possible to identify a person who can be granted a patent."

Further, the person who operated the AI machine was also not an inventor:

"I have considered the alternative option that Dr Thaler is the inventor.  It seems clear that Dr Thaler asserts that he did not devise the invention but merely acquired knowledge of the invention from the artificial intelligence machine.  In the light of JMVB Dr Thaler would not be the inventor."

See Stephen L. Thaler [2021] APO 5

FTC priorities under Biden Administration

U.S. law firm Wilson Sonsini has a good summary of likely FTC priorities.

See https://www.wsgr.com/en/insights/acting-ftc-chairwoman-slaughter-previews-potential-ftc-priorities-under-new-administration.html

Potential key priorities:

• Requirements in privacy and data security consent orders that represent a departure from the FTC's typical approach to consumer notice and disgorgement, including requirements that companies "disgorge" the data and benefits that they amassed through their allegedly wrongful behavior, and provide notice to consumers of the FTC settlement and the conduct at issue in the settlement; and
• Increased FTC scrutiny of health apps, facial recognition technology, algorithms and AI, and other issues related to the pandemic and racial equity, particularly where those issues fall under the purview of the FCRA or ECOA.

Section 230

Opinion | The Constitution Can Crack Section 230
Tech companies think the statute allows them to censor with impunity. The law is seldom so simple.

Read in The Wall Street Journal: https://apple.news/AykpuzRwHQJeQWQoc3GPxyg