Promoting and protecting digital rights since 1994

EFA is an independent non-profit association that relies on membership subscriptions and donations. If you're concerned about digital rights in Australia, please join or donate today.
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Updates from EFA
Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2026 Withdrawn

Written by John Pane, EFA Chair. Following some very spirited debate today in the Senate, EFA is quite happy to announce that the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill has been withdrawn. In respect of Senator Gallagher’s (LAB) comments in the Senate today that “….the intention of the bill was to modernise the FOI process, reduce hours and dollars spent on processing requests and protect public servants from abuse”, EFA considers these comments to be quite

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Freedom of Information

Albanese Government Poised to Restrict Australia’s Freedom of Information Regime

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) warns that the Albanese government is set to weaken our government’s transparency framework and its accountability by using its numbers to bulldoze the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 (FOIA Bill) through Parliament without amendment when it resumes this week, despite overwhelming and well-reasoned opposition to the Bill. It seems the Albanese government, despite having received more than 60 submissions strongly opposing the FOIA Bill and calling for

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General

EFA Inc Membership Engagement Survey 2025

By EFA Chair, John Pane. It’s been some time since we’ve done this. And it’s about time!  As you know, as part of our advocacy work EFA has been chipping away at awareness-building activities (think media interviews and newsletters) and on the ground policy work to push for digital rights policies that matter most to you and help to make our society a better place for all of us. Right now the fight for digital rights

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Infrastructure

What OpenClaw, OpenAI, and a Node.js Hack Tell Us About the Future of AI Agents

 By Warren McHugh, EFA Board Member. AI is being sold as a friendly assistant that quietly makes life easier: it writes emails, fixes code, books meetings, drafts legal notes, summarises research. The new wave of “AI agents” goes further than just suggesting things, they’re designed to act on your behalf. The OpenClaw story shows how quickly that can slide from “helpful assistant” to “powerful tool that attackers love”, and how big AI companies seem more

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General

International Day of Women and Girls in Science: EFA Profiles A/Prof Vanessa Teague

In celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science on the 11th of February, Electronic Frontiers Australia is proud to feature A/Prof Vanessa Teague, a leading voice in Australian cryptography and is a former EFA board member. Her work is at the forefront of protecting our digital rights, including uncovering vulnerabilities in e-voting systems and co-designing protocols for improved election integrity. She was also part of the research team which uncovered that supposedly

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Online Safety

Social Media, Big Tech, and Big Tobacco: Is There a Connection?

Written by John Pane, EFA Chair. For years, concerns about children, smartphones, and social media have occupied a grey zone — intuitively alarming, politically contentious, and legally elusive. Fast forward to 2025 and Australia passes the social media ban that we had to have. Problem solved, right? Well, the government seems to think so. But I don’t. Meanwhile in the US, a Los Angeles courtroom became the site of what could be the first jury

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What We Do

Policy

We actively monitor a number of policy areas and specific issues. The topics below provide a detailed view of EFA’s policy positions.

Copyright

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 & Security

Privacy is fundamentally about consent and control over access to information, and goes hand-in-hand with security. Privacy is a human right.

Censorship

Adults should be able to make their own informed decisions about what content they create and consume.

Encryption

Access to encryption technologies is vital for individuals and groups to be able to safeguard the security and privacy of their information.

Internet safety

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.

Surveillance

EFA is committed to ensuring that Australian’s home life is not subject to arbitrary interference.