The EFA Annual General Meeting is to be held on Saturday, 29 November 2025 at 13.00 AEDT. The meeting will be held on Google Meet. Details at end of this email. The Constitution dictates that at least five positions are up for election each year and accordingly, there are seven Board positions open for election. All currently serving Board members are eligible to nominate again, should they choose to do so. Meeting Agenda The meeting will consider
Disturbing revelations have emerged that compliance training company SafeTrac covertly activated the microphones on employees’ laptops while they were working from home and recorded conversations in the name of monitoring productivity. Ironically, SafeTrac’s core business is advising companies on how to adhere to the law. Yet, they may have broken the law themselves by covertly surveilling their employees through their use of an employee monitoring software called Teramind, a matter currently under investigation by the
Internet Search Engine Services Online Safety Code and Social Media Minimum Age Rules On Monday, 13 October 2025, John Pane, EFA Chair appeared before Senate Estimates and gave evidence in respect of the fundamentally flawed “social media ban” for under 16 year olds and the proposed Internet Search Engine Code. EFA strongly believes both codes are not fit for purpose, and that the government has had its thumb on the scale while drafting its policy,
EFA members are invited to nominate for election to the Board. As per Rule 10.4 of the EFA Rules of Incorporation, there will be five vacant Board seats at the AGM. EFA has been in existence for over 30 years now and many past and present Board members have made significant contributions to shifting the needle on government policy and legislation covering digital rights and privacy. EFA exists today because of the achievements and hard
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) stands in solidarity with the people of Nepal following the government’s decision to block access to major social media platforms on 05 September 2025. This action, taken under the guise of maintaining public order, is in response to protests organised by local activists highlighting government corruption and also its authoritarian approach to regulating social media platforms. To date, 19 protesters have been killed and over a hundred injured, including many school children
Electronic Frontiers Australia is disturbed to learn that the Australian Government is incorporating ChatGPT 4.o into a pilot program for AI use in the public service. The Department of Finance previously announced that it was exploring AI use cases across government; however, no specific mention was made as to whether this AI was to be “generative AI” or “agentic AI.” In July, ITNews announced the use of Chat GPT 4.o within the Commonwealth Public Service
We actively monitor a number of policy areas and specific issues. The topics below provide a detailed view of EFA’s policy positions.
Australia’s copyright laws are outdated, inflexible and not fit for the digital age. As such, EFA is a long-standing supporter of reform of Australia’s Copyright Act.
Privacy is fundamentally about consent and control over access to information, and goes hand-in-hand with security. Privacy is a human right.
Adults should be able to make their own informed decisions about what content they create and consume.
Access to encryption technologies is vital for individuals and groups to be able to safeguard the security and privacy of their information.
Surveillance is not safety. Safety for whom, against what? This complex problem is more likely to be exacerbated, rather than solved, by measures that allow for unaccountable surveillance and the undermining of communications security.
EFA is committed to ensuring that Australian’s home life is not subject to arbitrary interference.