SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
RobotMonster writes:
"The Guardian reports that a vast database containing the full names, nationalities, location, arrival date, and boat arrival information for a third of all asylum seekers held in Australia -- almost 10,000 adults and children -- had been inadvertently released by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in one of the most serious privacy breaches in Australia's history.
The disclosure of the database is a major embarrassment for the federal government, which has adopted a policy of extreme secrecy on asylum-seeker issues. As the department is likely to have breached Australia's privacy laws, it will be interesting to see what the repercussions are for the people who should be held responsible."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Australia's Asylum-Seeker Database Leaked
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 28 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
I don't want a pickle,
I just wanna ride on my motorsickle.
And I don't want to die,
I just want to ride on my motorcy.
Cle.
-- Arlo Guthrie
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SMI on Friday February 21 2014, @08:05PM
"...it will be interesting to see what the repercussions are for the people who should be held responsible."
It will be interesting to see simply if there are repercussions for the people who should be held responsible.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Friday February 21 2014, @09:08PM
Nice UID :)
Yeah, I doubt that truly responsible people ever suffer consequences in this world anymore.
We can absolutely destroy a young mother with millions in punitive damages, and possibly even jail time, over some copyright infringement.
Isn't that done ostensibly because those warez sites and resulting torrent/data traffic causes untold billions upon trillions upon gadjagagillions of money lost to the economy and dead puppies and bruised fruit?
If what they say is true, why are they not suing the shit out of those ad networks for supporting terrorism and crime? Where is the hundred million dollar lawsuit against McDonalds for supporting piracy?
The double speak, logical fallacies, and double standards of those groups is simply staggering to behold sometimes.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by SMI on Friday February 21 2014, @09:59PM
Thanks, I agree. Please mod up!
(Score: 5, Informative) by Fluffeh on Friday February 21 2014, @09:37PM
I would personally hope that before worrying about repercussions, they worry about making sure it doesn't happen again. I'm also happy with the way that the Guardian acted:
(Score: 4, Insightful) by lentilla on Saturday February 22 2014, @03:32AM
I'm not convinced that's good enough. Serious data leaks happen again and again. And again and again and again. Not a single week goes past where some large organisation isn't doing the red-faced, public-relations, spin-doctoring dance... and they are only the ones that weren't able to cover the leaks up!
Every time there is a leak we have the same response: "err, computer error, *cough*, looking into making sure that this doesn't happen again, making enquiries, etc". The damage has already been done. It is now well-known to even average people that data must be protected with the greatest of diligence. Failure to do so is not a case for "oops, sorry about that", it's a simple case of negligence.
Punishment - even if it's on a small scale - would go a long way to helping the "average man" understand that data security is everyone's business. Simply fire those responsible for leaking the data, and those that made it available in an easy-to-leak format. If you have access to data, you have a responsibility to look after it.
(Score: 1) by SMI on Saturday February 22 2014, @07:26AM
"If you have access to data, you have a responsibility to look after it."
Well said. Now if we could just find a way to apply that to situations such as people giving away other people's information (without their knowledge or permission) to companies like Facebook... I'd like to see a law defining people's personal information as IP, with legal takedown capability and fines. After all, at least in the US, if someone calls a place of business looking for one employee, the only info that anyone else at the company can legally give out are the person's first name and the next time they are scheduled to work.
I realize that legal takedowns and fines might very well be a slippery slope, but it seems, at least to me, that it would be a more balanced approach than what we have now.