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 contained 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 the 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.
The case, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald and currently before the NSW District Court, centres on Adriana Nehme, a former sales and marketing manager at The Art Scene, a supplier of arts materials. Nehme created a "Canva Pro" account, a paid subscription tier of the popular graphic-design platform, using her personal email in 2020 and covered the subscription cost herself until July 2023. From that point her employer picked up the bill, but Nehme maintained she held the account and had never handed over ownership.
What exactly was stored in the account?
The files went well beyond company design work. Nehme used the same account to keep family medical records, personal identification documents, private financial records, legal advice about her workplace dispute, and confidential documents belonging to her husband's separate business.
In May 2023 she gave one colleague at The Art Scene access to a single shared folder within the account, not to the account itself. 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. After Nehme's employment ended on 19 March 2026, she kept paying the subscription herself and left the shared folder access in place. Then, in July 2026, she received several automated emails from Canva flagging changes to the account and 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."
Nehme raised the issue with Canva directly, contacted The Art Scene (which said it was seeking legal advice), and then went to police. Canva did not respond to a request for 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 any of Nehme's personal files before the matter goes to a final hearing. He found, at face value, that she had a reasonable expectation of privacy and that there had been a misuse of her information.
University of Sydney law professor David Rolph said the case shows privacy law reaching into workplaces in ways people have not yet 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, even partly, for work purposes, mixing personal and professional files creates real risk. Keep work files and personal files in separate accounts, full stop. If your employer ever starts paying for a subscription you originally owned, clarify in writing who holds the account and who can make changes to it. And if anything about your account access changes unexpectedly after you leave a job, contact the platform's support team immediately and document everything.
