A pretty heavy read.
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The privacy policy document is only one half of the devil.
I could write a one line privacy policy document
You have no privacy; we will ravage it for all itâs worth (to us). We will keep everything forever.
and no one should be happy with the fact that itâs so readable.
I guess though that dense legalese is used to obscure the truth so that you donât even know that you consented to having your privacy ravaged forever.
Couldnât you use the time while waiting for your flight and while on your flight to read that Microsoft âBarry Crockerâ privacy policy? That would be efficient. 
To revisit this issue âŠ
and (this item is linked in the above)
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Iâd like to highlight the Nespresso privacy policy as one of the worst that Iâve seen.
Within each heading, text has no spacing between paragraphs. Itâs just a wall that makes reading it very difficult. I can see why they would want to discourage reading it.
Nespresso employs a number of practices including social media scraping (including your photos and videos), identified data from market researchers and even information from debt collection and credit report agencies. If you register your machine and connect it to wi-fi, it will provide identified data to Nespresso on the time and flavour of every coffee you make. Nespresso may retain this data for as long as they deem necessary, and all data is transferred offshore.
Did I agree to it? Well the financial incentive combined with my need for coffee was too strong.
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One can decide for themselves how serious government and the OAIC are about our information and privacy.
A salient part of the article is
'When the agency refused to take down the renterâs personal information or its comments, the renter threatened to lodge a privacy complaint with OAIC. In response, the real estate agency escalated the conflict, threatening to publish more of the renterâs personal information, including health information. â
⊠the punishment was the removal of the renterâs personal information from the Google reviews platform, a letter of apology to the renter, and a commitment from the real estate agency to train staff on how to properly handle such information going forward.
The concept of a deterrent seems to be wildly âun-Australianâ.
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So the Department of Education sent through a consent request this week, asking parents to consent to providing student information to various websites that schools may use to educate your child.
a) The consent collected by the form covers the following student personal information (identifying attributes):
Student name (first name and/or last name)
Sex/Gender
Date of Birth, age, year of birth
AND the following school-based information (generally, non-identifying attributes*):
Student school username
Student school email
Student ID number
School
Year Group
Class
Teacher
Country
*In cases where registration and/or use requires a combination of school-based information (non-identifying) and personal information, or a combination of school-based information, the school-based information may become identifiable.
b) If an online service records, uses, discloses and/or publishes student works, parent information or additional student information (such as photographs of students), not listed above (Section 2a.), the school will specify it as part of the Additional consent requirements on the form. Examples may include:
Student assessment
Student projects, assignment, portfolios
Student image, video, and/or audio recording
Sensitive information (e.g., medical, wellbeing)
Name and/or contact details (e.g. email, mobile phone number) of studentâs parent
In total, the consent form itself is about 5,000 words long. It includes a list of the online services covered by the blanket request, 43 sites in total. They link to the site, provide a brief summary of what itâs used for, and give links to the T&Câs and privacy policy for each site. What they donât provide is a summary of what information each site requires.
Based on the information above, you have to give or refuse consent.
43 sites. 86 documents to read. Using the Choice review of about 56 minutes per policy, thatâs 80 hours of reading they expect a parent be able to get through in order to make an informed decision.
Seriously? I would love to know which parent has the time to do that, especially if they have multiple kids at different year levels using different sites.
This is absurd.
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What happens if you decline to give consent? Or is there no choice, hence itâs really âconsentâ.
According to this article (which shows in graphic detail just how much reading would be required of parents processing these consent forms!), in Qld schools declining consent means the child isnât allowed to use the app/s that the consent form is about, and this supposedly doesnât affect their schooling ⊠but if that is true, why are the apps being used in the first place? 
Is parentsâ consent really voluntary?
âI wonder how voluntary the consent really is because one of the things theyâre supposed to specify in a collection notice is what are the consequences for you, and I guess in this case, your child, if you donât agree,â said Dr Cohen [Tegan Cohen, who researches digital platforms and privacy law at Queensland University of Technology].
The consent form used by Queensland state schools does answer that question ⊠to a degree. It says that it is not compulsory for parents to provide consent and that not consenting âwill not adversely affect any learning opportunities provided by the school to your childâ.
Itâs hard to see what these educational apps bring to the classroom if students who arenât allowed to use them genuinely donât miss out on any learning opportunities. But even if thatâs plausible, parents and academics we spoke to pointed out that there could be social and emotional impacts for children whose parents withhold consent.
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The policies are under scrutiny. How the companies walk their talk might still be an âafter the factâ test.
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