Portrait photograph of Anna Sharpe
Anna Sharpe
Consultant

Mer­i­tas’ M+A & Pri­vate Equi­ty Group host­ed an online Data Pri­va­cy Update on 25 Octo­ber. Swaab’s Anna Sharpe with Yao Rao from the Shang­hai firm HHP Attor­neys and Jef­frey Lim from Joyce A Tan & Part­ners, Sin­ga­pore were co-presenters.

Yao Rao gave an update on recent changes to data and pri­va­cy laws in Chi­na and not­ed that pro­hi­bi­tions on some data flows to coun­tries out­side Chi­na have recent­ly been eased. Jef­frey Lim made some inter­est­ing obser­va­tions about the bal­ance Singapore’s pri­va­cy laws achieves between indi­vid­u­als’ pri­va­cy rights on the one hand, and posi­tion­ing Sin­ga­pore as an attrac­tive hub for region­al invest­ment in the Asia-Pacif­ic on the other.

Anna cov­ered the con­tentious top­ic of when the Aus­tralian Pri­va­cy Act impos­es oblig­a­tions on com­pa­nies who have lim­it­ed cor­po­rate or IT pres­ence in Aus­tralia. She also spoke about when Aus­tralian com­pa­nies may be liable for the pri­va­cy breach­es of ex-Aus­tralian data recip­i­ents (for exam­ple off­shore cloud ser­vice providers). The issue of what is need­ed for there to be a valid opt-in (con­sent) was out­lined and also gen­er­al­ly what Pri­va­cy Act com­pli­ance involves

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

Cross-Com­pa­ny Secu­ri­ty and Liq­uida­tor Chal­lenges: Full Fed­er­al Court Restores Cer­tain­ty in CEG Direct Secu­ri­ties v Coop­er [2025] FCAFC 47

A sig­nif­i­cant deci­sion from the Full Fed­er­al Court has clar­i­fied the lim­its of liq­uida­tors’ pow­ers to unwind cross-com­pa­ny secu­ri­ty grant­ed…

Copy­right and Gen­er­a­tive AI: what Aus­tralia can learn from the Meta and Anthrop­ic Rulings

In 2025, two U.S. court deci­sions, Kadrey v. Meta and Bartz v. Anthrop­ic, have pro­vid­ed the first real judi­cial answers…

Fed­er­al Court Deci­sion Lim­its Effec­tive Use of Set-Off in Con­trac­tu­al Annu­al Salary Arrangements

The Deci­sionIn a recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion*, Jus­tice Per­ram held that while con­trac­tu­al set-off claus­es in an annu­al salary arrange­ment can…

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Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Evan Lucas on 2GB on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2025 to dis­cuss the recent Fed­er­al Court…

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