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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Opinion: The game is up for Malcolm’s pseudo-NBN
Anyone watching or listening to today’s day-long forensic deconstruction by former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy of the current state of the NBN rollout could but not conclude that the entire project is being neutered for entirely political reasons. Even NBN CEO Bill Morrow, by the end of the day, effectively conceded that he was no longer able to defend the Prime Minister’s stated belief that a Fibre-to-the-Node approach was the…
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Google expands the ‘right to be forgotten’, but Australia doesn’t need it
Search engines play an indispensable role in our information age. They are how we navigate the internet. Without their assistance, most of us would be lost. When access to their functionality is limited, our substantive access to information is limited. This is exactly the point behind the so-called “right to be forgotten”. The term refers to the European Union law that aims to protect privacy by requiring search engines to…
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EFA concerned by Nikolic appointment, lack of support for encryption
EFA is concerned about yesterday’s announcement that Tasmanian MP Andrew Nikolic is to be appointed as Chair of the critical Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. Mr Nikolic’s hard-line views on national security issues and his apparent disdain for civil liberties suggest that he is unlikely to bring a balanced and objective perspective to the important work of this committee. Independent and objective oversight of Australia’s security and intelligence…
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Apple v FBI is ALL about the precedent
Over and over again as people keep talking about the Apple / FBI encryption stuff, I keep seeing the same line pop up. It’s something along the lines of “but the FBI needs to know what’s on that phone, so if Apple can help, why shouldn’t it.” Let’s debunk that myth. The FBI absolutely does not need to know what’s on that phone. It might not even care very much…
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Did the FBI deliberately force Apple into a corner?
There has already been much discussion about the many issues with the DOJ’s motion to compel Apple to create a backdoor to let them brute force the passcode on Syed Farook’s iPhone. However, eagle-eyed Chris Soghoian caught something especially interesting in a footnote. Footnote 7, on page 18 details four possible ways that Apple and the FBI had previously discussed accessing the content on the device without having to undermine the…
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Clipper Chip Redux
I read the news headlines and sometimes it is hard to tell what decade we are in. Just over 20 years ago, the National Security Agency developed and tried to make standard an encryption device with a built-in backdoor called the Clipper Chip. At that point it was intended for voice communications but inevitably would have been incorporated into Internet communications over time. Fortunately, due to the efforts of the…
Help fight for our digital rights
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.