Alinta Energy stands accused of potentially exposing the sensitive information of its 1.1 million customers because it lacks sufficient privacy protection systems.

“I think in the last five years, we've gone from being able to use some information about an individual to being able to effectively monetise and deliver the exact right message to the exact right person at the exact right time through the martech stack.”

Ikea's decision to give customers more control about how it handles their data signals the role privacy around customer data now plays in the brand marketer's toolkit, several industry experts say.

Mastercard is launching a pilot program to test the effectiveness of a new digital identity verification service, with the aim of developing a new system to verify a person’s identity immediately, safely and securely in both the digital and the physical world. It will also make additional partnerships and pilots throughout 2020.

In a world of huge data growth, where data has been identified by some as the “new oil”, the most critical point for businesses is understanding the identity behind the data, according to Warren Jenson, chief financial officer, president and executive managing director of international, LiveRamp.

Too many people confuse innovation with change, and trade on false positives such as privacy coming at the expense of progress, Apple CEO, Tim Cook believes. And it’s by identifying the distinction between these that he says allows the technology company to continue to succeed.

The takeover of smaller rivals by large digital platforms, which includes swagging their customer data sets, poses a threat to consumers’ choice and privacy, according to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chair, Rod Sims.

During its Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple announced its latest measures aimed at protecting users’ privacy and curbing tracking across the digital realm. It’s not the first attempt to limit tracking, nor is it the only tool available to aid digital privacy, but it signals to consumers that something's up with privacy.

​The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US has reportedly hit Facebook with a record $5 billion settlement for privacy violations, according to a story first reported by The Wall Street Journal and numerous subsequent online reports.

​Brands need to strike the right balance between personalisation and privacy, and nowhere is this more acute than in the home, according to a new report from Accenture Research. The Putting the Human First in the Future Home report looks at Australian’s attitudes towards smart home technology and finds a tension between helpfulness and intrusiveness.

Taylor Swift doesn’t immediately spring to mind when thinking about facial recognition. Yet the Grammy award winning singer has reportedly used the technology at her concerts to identify stalkers.

There's no doubt personalisation improves the customer experience. But it requires foregoing some degree of privacy, which people are more likely to do this if they have trust in the business and see the value in why they're sharing personal information.

Facebook is expanding upon the privacy announcements it made in March this year, saying it is building a more privacy-focused social platform moving forward.

As Google appeals its 50 million Euro GDPR breach fine, a privacy expert warns Australians dealing with data that a pre-ticked box for general consent will no longer cut it.

Australians are either ‘not sure’ or only ‘somewhat understand’ how several leading apps use and/or share their data, according to a new Roy Morgan privacy study.

The sophistication of the Australian digital market, plus the rapid rate local marketers have embraced personalisation and metrics, is phenomenal, global leaders from the Oracle Data Cloud team believe. Now, they say, it’s up the marketers globally to ask the right questions about where they want this technology to go.

Employees across more than nine in 10 of Australia’s top 100 brands believe their organisations don’t do a good enough job of being transparent with consumers about how their information is being used.

Cryptography researchers at MIT and Harvard have developed software called Sieve that is designed to help users keep track of encrypted personal data and better manage it in the cloud.

Consumers have historically been happy to hand over personal data in exchange for value. But the rise of advanced analytics and the Internet of Things is bringing us to a point where they could well value their privacy more.

"We at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security," said Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this month during an Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) event where he was honored for corporate leadership. "We can and we must provide both in equal measure."

A lawsuit that alleges Yahoo's email scanning practices are illegal can proceed as a class action complaint, a development that will shine the spotlight on the Yahoo Mail use of messages' content for advertising purposes.