Metadata: From Ingestion to Retention - The Legal Issues

It was a great privilege to be invited again to speak at the Cybersecurity Research Bootcamp 2020, held at the Joint Cybersecurity Centre in Adelaide, SA, in January 2020. Convened by Associate Professor Matthew Sorell, University of Adelaide and Tallinn University of Technology, it attracted a national and international audience of researchers, technologists and industry and law enforcement representatives.

In presenting on the topic “Metadata: From Ingestion to Retention – The Legal Issues”, I addressed developments regarding metadata governance and its utility in litigious and non-litigious environments. From a privacy perspective, the complex application of the concept of “personal information” to metadata under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the implications of the Full Federal Court decision in Grubb v Telstra were scrutinised.  National and international trends in the use of metadata in employment, professional services, commercial and criminal cases were analysed.  Finally, statutory disclosure obligations for metadata breaches, including self-reporting and mandatory notification, were highlighted.