Surveillance
WA Police Trial AI Facial Recognition Vans
WAPol are testing surveillance vans across that use AI to scan large crowds of people to find criminals… supposedly. Who are the suspects? Everyone who walks past them.
WAPol are testing surveillance vans across that use AI to scan large crowds of people to find criminals… supposedly. Who are the suspects? Everyone who walks past them.
In July 2026, Prime Minister Albanese announced a shift from voluntary technology guidelines to a mandatory legislative framework. EFA has mixed opinions.
EFA welcomes intern Maya Layish from Cambridge University. Maya will support EFA in a range of public facing and back office activities.
Electronic Frontiers Australia has issued an urgent warning to Australian social media users following the rollout of Meta’s latest AI tool, ‘Muse Image’. The feature routinely exploits public Instagram accounts by allowing anyone to co-opt and alter a person’s facial likeness using a simple text tag, without prior consent or subsequent notification. EFA strongly condemns Meta’s choice by embracing “dark patterns” by deploying an aggressive “roach motel” UX model to manage user privacy instead of
EFA has joined the launch of Stop Killing the Internet, a new global movement for a better internet: open, private, free, accessible, democratic and shaped by communities. See here: Stop Killing the Internet Stop Killing the Internet brings together organisations, communities, legal networks, political groups, unions, parties, creators, technologists, public figures and individuals from around the world. The movement exists to develop, communicate and coordinate a shared response to the spread of internet control measures such
23 June 2026 – Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has strongly condemned the Western Australia Police Force’s deployment of live facial recognition technology in public spaces. In this Australian first, a marked police van will be used outside major events and in crowded areas to scan the faces of people walking past in real time. “This is an outrageous act of police overreach and a fundamental breach of our individual and collective human and digital rights.”
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Australia’s copyright laws are outdated, inflexible and not fit for the digital age.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.