Australian court blocks employer from wiping ex-worker's personal files stored in her own Canva account
A former marketing manager stored family medical records and legal documents inside her personal Canva account. After she left her job, her ex-employer appears to have locked her out. A NSW court has now stepped in.
Key points
- An NSW District Court interim injunction, granted in July 2026, temporarily stops The Art Scene from deleting personal files belonging to former employee Adriana Nehme.
- Nehme's Canva account held family medical records, personal financial records, legal documents about her employment dispute, and confidential files from her husband's business.
- Judge Matthew Dicker found, on the face of it, that account access was changed intentionally by The Art Scene after Nehme's employment ended in March 2026.
- The case is one of the first to use Australia's updated privacy laws to seek court protection in an employment dispute.
- A further hearing was scheduled for 22 July 2026; no final ruling has been handed down.
Australia's updated privacy laws have already found a use that few people expected: stopping a business from deleting a former employee's personal files stored in a design tool she paid for herself. Our 31 August report on Australia's proposed privacy reforms covered the right-to-deletion provisions driving cases like this one.
The case, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald and currently before the NSW District Court, centres on Nehme, a former sales and marketing manager at The Art Scene, an arts-materials supplier. She opened a Canva Pro account using her personal email in 2020 and covered the subscription herself until July 2023. Her employer then took over the bill, though she maintained she'd never transferred ownership.
What exactly was stored in the account?
The files went well beyond company design work. Nehme kept family medical records, personal identification documents, private financial records, legal advice about her workplace dispute, and confidential material from her husband's separate business, all inside the same account.
In May 2023 she gave one colleague at The Art Scene access to a single shared folder within the account. She says she never gave anyone at the company administrator rights.
How did the employer end up in control?
The Art Scene appears to have used that limited foothold to take over the whole account. Nehme's employment ended on 19 March 2026. She continued paying the subscription herself and left the shared folder access untouched. Then, in July 2026, several automated emails from Canva flagged changes to the account and she found herself locked out of her personal folder.
Judge Matthew Dicker said the timing pointed strongly to deliberate action. "The fact that the access was changed, apparently by the defendant, suggests to me for the purposes of this application that the invasion of privacy was intentional."
She raised the issue with Canva directly, then contacted The Art Scene, which said it was seeking legal advice. After that she went to police. Canva had no comment.
What did the court actually do?
Dicker granted an interim injunction, a temporary court order that freezes the situation while the full case is heard, stopping The Art Scene from destroying Nehme's personal files before a final hearing. His aim, he said, was to "preserve the status quo until the rights of the parties can be determined at a final hearing, including to prevent the practical destruction of the right." He found, at face value, that she had a reasonable expectation of privacy and that her information had been misused.
University of Sydney law professor David Rolph, speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, said the case shows privacy law reaching into workplaces in ways people haven't fully registered. "This case demonstrates privacy concerns can manifest in other areas such as employment disputes."
| Key date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2020 | Nehme opens personal Canva Pro account, pays subscription herself |
| July 2023 | Employer begins paying the subscription; Nehme retains ownership |
| May 2023 | Nehme grants one colleague access to a single shared folder |
| 19 March 2026 | Nehme's employment at The Art Scene ends |
| July 2026 | Nehme locked out of her personal folder after account changes |
| July 2026 | Judge Dicker grants interim injunction blocking file deletion |
What should employees take from this?
If you use a personal account partly for work, mixing files creates real risk. Keep work files separate from personal ones. If your employer ever starts paying for a subscription you originally owned, clarify in writing who holds the account and who can modify it. And if access changes unexpectedly after you leave a job, contact the platform's support team immediately and document everything.
The detail worth watching here isn't the injunction itself. It's that Nehme paid for the account, used her personal email, and still lost access. Ownership on paper and control in practice turned out to be very different things, and no final ruling has settled which one the law will protect.
