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Voyeur

I think it must be the voyeur in me but I’m totally fascinated by the photos people take of the stuff they carry with them. I don’t really know why. Am I trying to understand just how popular Apple Macbooks and iPods are? Do I just want to reinforce my love of Moleskins? Am I trying to fill in the gaps of the stuff that I carry around with me?

It all started with the Screenshot Tour: Show Us Your Go Bag, which also had a sequel, and then today I stumbled upon the Items We Carry Flickr group!

Ah it’s all too much.

Posted by Christian Posted in: General 2 Comments » 27 August 2007


Data Disclosure Laws in Australia

I’m interested to see how proposed changes to the Australian Privacy Act are going to look:

The Federal Government is set to introduce data disclosure laws in Australia as early as 2008.

The push for data disclosure laws in Australia is part of a review of the Privacy Act being undertaken by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) which began early this year.

A discussion paper, recommending the introduction of these laws which would force organizations to notify customers of security breaches…

(From Computerworld Australia)

I have to agree with some of the comments in the article, especially in regards to it being a good thing for customers if businesses have to disclose information breaches. But whether it’s “good business to notify customers”, I’m not entirely sure. If your business suffered an information breach I can’t imagine that disclosing that to your customers would be good for business.

Unless of course that due to stricter disclosure laws businesses have to tighten up their controls, which in turn provides better services to customers. But it’s hard to see how having to increase, check and audit controls would simply occur easily and for nothing. So how does this happen? Well the businesses have to employ more security folk and spend more money on controls. And who do you think will have to pay for this service? My guess is that this will either cut profits or maybe we’ll see customers wear the costs.

Regardless of the “how”, I think the overall “why” of this law is definitely a good thing. The article alludes to how these types of incidents may be occurring all the time without anyone knowing. This thought worries me. I’m all for transparency.

Posted by Christian Posted in: Security 1 Comment » 7 August 2007