It seems to get more unfair for PlayStation users here in Australia that were affected by the data breach which occurred at Sony last month.
Our Privacy Laws for data breaches appear to be out-dated and inadequate, so our country has limited powers of redress and investigation into the matter.
Now if there are any users who have found their personal details which were exposed in the data breach have met with foul play, we may not even get a chance to file a class action.    
Reported in The Australian IT yesterday by Chris Griffith titled Sony class action ‘difficult’, it may not be possible to file a class action against Sony here in Australia because of the onus of proof required.
A Brisbane-based compensation law expert says the hacking doesn’t automatically mean a lawsuit may be filed against Sony.   
“To be a class action there would need to be enough people who have suffered loss because of the failure of Sony to protect the information which was provided by the customers of Sony,” says Mark O’Connor from Bennett and Philp Lawyers.
He says it may be difficult to prove misuse of a credit card due to the Sony data breach, because people probably have given their card details to other service providers as well via the internet. The small print of the customer agreement will be the real key to whether any action could be brought against them.
The other problem with proof falls with the fact that the breach and its possible impact on Australians has not been publicised enough in mainstream media (in our opinion). So there may be identity theft victims in this country who would have no idea to link their Sony PlayStation account information with any possible credit card fraud. People often don’t report identity theft due to embarrassment or simply not realising they are victims until they are refused credit due to defaults on their credit file.
Our message to PlayStation users is – check your credit card statements, if there is anything unusual it needs to be checked out by the Police! Also obtain a report on your credit file. The more people that speak out about being affected – the easier it could be for identity theft victims who were severely affected to obtain some kind of compensation via a class action.