Dear Ms Teague

 

I understand you have sought internal review of a decision made by Ms Pamela Longstaff, Head of Corporate Government & FOI Coordinator, as per your email below.

 

The internal review decision is due to be provided to you on Monday 16 August 2021, being 30 days since your request was received.  Unfortunately there has been a delay in conducting the review due to workloads.  I anticipate that a decision will be provided to you by 30 August 2021.  I apologise for the inconvenience. 

 

Kind regards

 

 

ABC

Amy Fox

Employment Counsel

P

02 8333 2691

E

[email address]

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.

 

NOTICE: This email and any attachments are confidential, may be legally privileged and may include copyright material. The information in this email is intended for the use of the individual or entity named above, only. Please do not forward or redistribute this email without authorisation. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not read, disseminate, copy or otherwise use or take any action in reliance on any information in this email. Please advise a member of the ABC Employment Counsel team immediately if you have incorrectly received this email.  

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanessa Teague <[FOI #7511 email]>
Sent: Friday, 16 July 2021 8:59 PM
To: FOI ABC <[ABC request email]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - iView data sharing agreements

 

Dear Australian Broadcasting Corporation,

 

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

 

I am writing to request an internal review of Australian Broadcasting Corporation's handling of my FOI request 'iView data sharing agreements'.

 

I do not accept that the documents are covered by a "necessary quality of confidentiality" merely because they contain confidentiality clauses, i.e. the parties agreed to keep them secret.  If this line of reasoning were valid, then any agreement made by a public authority could remain confidential, no matter how gravely opposed to the public interest, only because the parties to that contract had undertaken to keep it so. Public authorities and corporations making arrangements against the public interest are most likely to want to keep them confidential.

 

I do not believe the information could have been exchanged with an "understanding of confidence" when the ABC is constrained by APP1 - 'to manage personal information in an open and transparent way.’ It is not credible to suggest that the receiving parties, Google, Facebook and others, did not realise that the people whose data was being given to them would wish to know the nature of the data sharing arrangement.

 

Finally, I question the overly broad use of the term 'cause detriment.' While I agree that exposure of inappropriate, irresponsible or corrupt behaviour may cause detriment to specific individuals or corporations, I do not believe that is the intended interpretation of that clause. Publication of these contracts would not cause detriment unless there is something embarrassing to hide - even then, it would not cause detriment to the community as a whole.

 

The publication of these data sharing arrangements has tremendous public benefits. First, it informs ordinary iView viewers of how their data is being shared, hence giving them some opportunity to protect themselves from some of its harmful consequences. Second, it allows technical experts like me to examine the accuracy of the privacy policy.  I am concerned that there may be misconceptions about the strength of technical privacy protections.  For example, the privacy policy's mention of a 'hash of the email address' suggests that the inadequacy of hashing as a technical privacy protection has not been understood.  If the technical protections promised in the data sharing contracts do not in fact meet the promises of the ABC's privacy policy, then the ABC needs to find out urgently.  Opening the data sharing contracts for independent review would be one way to do so.

 

I encourage you to reconsider your refusal.

 

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/iview_data_sharing_agreements__;!!FvZmfVE!VvC0PuDtVFIlb18wUMinbeICg0w0kLC6eYtpfQfY9diwuSg2QpsML6a0lh0pwYs$

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Vanessa Teague

 

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[FOI #7511 email]

 

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/officers__;!!FvZmfVE!VvC0PuDtVFIlb18wUMinbeICg0w0kLC6eYtpfQfY9diwuSg2QpsML6a0AnGm-po$

 

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

 

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------