Government agency

• WATERLOO, ON, June 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenText™ (NASDAQ: OTEX), (TSX: OTEX), the information company™, today announced it has achieved "fully authorized" status by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) for its Cloud for Government solution in the United States which now includes OpenText Extended ECM and OpenText AppWorks , two core products within the OpenText Content Cloud portfolio.
• The FedRAMP program promotes the adoption of secure cloud services across the federal government by providing a standardized approach to security authorization for cloud service offerings.
• FedRAMP plays a crucial role in enabling the adoption of cloud computing within the federal government while ensuring the security and protection of sensitive data.
• The Cloud for Government solution offers government agencies a bundled solution to deliver digital cloud services.

Published 29 May 2024
Read the keynote address prepared for delivery by Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind for the Innovate Australia Showcase on Wednesday 29 May 2024.

Introduction

• I thank them for their continuous stewardship of this land.
• I pay my respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to any First Nations peoples with us today.

Approaches to innovation

• However, I think we all know that for innovation to be considered a public good, it has to be about more than just novelty.
• Rather, for innovation to be something we value – for us all to gather here at a conference and worship at the altar of innovation – it needs to be about creating value, improving effectiveness or creating efficiencies, or addressing unmet needs.
• That is the kind of innovation we want entities and governments to invest in.
• Chiefly, innovation that has the input and buy in from the people it should benefit.
• For this reason, I’m compelled to point out the need for another form of innovation: regulatory innovation.

Community privacy attitudes

• The Australian community is becoming increasingly savvy about the value of their personal information and have made it clear that they have high privacy expectations.
• Around this time last year, my office conducted research of Australian attitudes to privacy.

Privacy law reform

• The Privacy Act reforms include proposals that would shift the existing onus on individuals, who are currently required to safeguard their privacy by navigating complex privacy policies and consent requirements, and place more responsibility on entities to be more transparent, consider the impacts on individuals associated with their handling of personal information, and to support individuals to exercise their privacy rights.
• The Privacy Act reforms will also extend existing obligations that public sector agencies already comply with to the private sector – these include the requirement to appoint a privacy officer and conduct a privacy impact assessment for high privacy risk projects.
• This means that, as the private sector looks to uplift their compliance in anticipation of privacy reform, Australian Government agencies will be able to capitalise on their existing arrangements to ensure government is an exemplar in best practice personal information handling.

Digital ID

Published 7 May 2024
Read the keynote address prepared for delivery by Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind for the Office of the Information Commissioner Queensland Privacy Awareness Week launch event on Tuesday 7 May 2024.

Introduction

• This shaped fundamentally how I came to understand abuses of state power and the importance of human rights law.
• Over time, I came to understand that the right to privacy is a key means by which power is mediated, limited and expressed.
• Infringements into privacy were one way in which power was exercised over individual journalists, activists and advocates.

Privacy is about power

• Notions of power cut in every direction in the digital ecosystem – the power wielded by tech monopolies and duopolies; the power concealed in political microtargeting and misinformation campaigns; the lack of power and agency consumers feel when they’re using digital technologies.
• The result is that today we see increasingly high levels of interest in and value placed on personal and data privacy.
• ‘You have zero privacy anyway’, said Scott McNeally, ‘Get over it.’ In the same year, Pew Research surveys showed that only 16% of online users were worried about privacy.
• If we compare that to today, a study also by Pew Research shows much, much higher levels both of privacy literacy and privacy concerns.
• Of course, there is even now draft privacy legislation under contemplation in the US, a jurisdiction historically adverse to federal privacy legislation, and it seems possible that the country will enact a privacy law before the end of the year.

Privacy Awareness Week

• It is against this backdrop, then, that we celebrate Privacy Awareness Week.
• This year, awareness of privacy is higher than ever before, arguably.
• We would also like to see government power up privacy Australia-wide by introducing the reforms to the Privacy Act that are so overdue.

Law reform

• It is an especially ideal time for businesses and government agencies covered by the Commonwealth Privacy Act and Queensland public sector agencies to power up existing privacy practices and culture, in advance of privacy law reform.
• The Australian Government responded in September, agreeing or agreeing in principle to all but 10 of the 116 proposals for reform.
• The federal Attorney-General shared last week that at the request of the Prime Minister, he will bring forward legislation in August to overhaul the Privacy Act.
• We see the positive obligation that personal information handling is fair and reasonable as a new keystone of the Australian privacy framework.

Privacy and technology

• In that role, I thought a lot about the role of data privacy regulation and regulators in grappling with new and emerging technologies, particularly AI.
• Online privacy and high privacy impact technologies, including practices involving the use of generative AI, facial recognition and the use of other biometric information, are also high on our regulatory priorities.
• The OAIC also has ongoing investigations into the use of facial recognition technology by Bunnings Group Limited and Kmart Australia Limited.
• We’ve also begun scoping what other new and emerging technologies might create privacy risks and harms that warrant our intervention.
• These all go to accountability – and there’s good reason to do them and show privacy leadership.

Data breaches and security

• Since the Commonwealth’s Notifiable Data Breaches scheme began in 2018, the OAIC has been notified of around 5,800 data breaches.
• There are high levels of public concern about data security as a result of the number and scale of recent breaches, and a strong appetite in the community for organisations and agencies to be held accountable.
• Mandatory reporting of breaches strengthens the protections afforded to everyone’s personal information and improves accountability and transparency in the way organisations respond to serious data breaches.
• Around 40% of data breaches notified to the OAIC have been the result of cyber security incidents.

Conclusion

• “Public Sector fleet managers are responsible for keeping our streets clean, public transportation running and our communities safe.
• “Partnering with Carahsoft will bring Samsara’s Public Sector distribution to the next level and extend the reach of our Connected Operations Cloud across Government agencies.
• “Carahsoft and our reseller partners are committed to delivering solutions that align with the dynamic requirements of today’s Public Sector leaders.
• For more information, contact the Carahsoft team at (844) 722-8436 or [email protected] ; or visit Samsara Experts Marketplace and Samsara's Carahsoft microsite .