If you’re reading this on your phone, you may have unlocked your device using your face or fingerprint. If so, you’re one of a growing number of people who regularly interact with biometric technologies.

Clearview AI has been making international headlines again this month as Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office and Australia’s Information Commissioner launched a joint investigation into its privacy practices. The company has also recently withdrawn from the Canadian market following an ongoing investigation in Canada. 

Genealogy is apparently the second most popular hobby in the United States, after gardening. In New Zealand, we’ve also seen a growing interest in tracing one’s ancestry. It has become a much discussed topic in online forums and the news media. Some of this boom has been driven by the ease with which people can submit the DNA information to find matches via genealogical websites such as Ancestry.com.

I recently attended a one-day Lawyers in Government Conference hosted by the Government Legal Network in Wellington. It was an action-packed day full of questions, debate and learnings. The panel discussion which most interlinked with our field was the session titled The Future is Now.

The importance of international collaboration in privacy and data protection continues to increase. Our news feeds and inboxes have been filled with the new European data protection regulations, the GDPR, in recent months, as well as compliance and enforcement issues over data giants who cross borders and collect personal information from billions of people.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to describe a broad basket of self-learning technologies. It is not only for self-driving cars, making shopping easier or for businesses to make better decisions in allocating their resources - but can reveal new insights into health issues and provide solutions to enable people to live a healthy life.

Did you think Ashley Madison was a big deal? Most of us know the story - a group of people who were looking online for affairs got outed because hackers took the database and dumped it online for everyone to see.