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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Thinking of using a VPN? Check the privacy policy first
With new threats to online freedoms appearing with frightening regularity (from SOPA to ACTA, and from the TPP to the recent PRISM scandal), it’s logical to assume internet users will increasingly turn toward privacy tools to protect their online data over the coming years. While the free-to-use TOR platform remains the most popular way to protect your online identity, many people choose to use commercial Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), primarily…
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Electoral silence on digital rights from both politicians and journalists
This article by EFA Board Member Sean Rintel was originally published on The Conversation. See the original article . Where is the election reporting on digital rights? Flickr: g4ll4is We’ve had #stopthenotes, #suppositories, and #sexappeal to keep us amused, but since the election campaign period began there has been very limited reporting in the mainstream media (MSM) of the electoral relevance of the digital rights issues faced by Australian citizens.…
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Fair Use is NOT Theft
The following post is a response from EFA Board Member Angela Daly to an article by Linda Jaivin, ‘Long story short: Fair Use is theft by any other name’ that was published in the Fairfax media on 31 July 2013. As an academic researcher working on intellectual property law and policy at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research as well as a board member of digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontiers Australia,…
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3D Printing: legal and regulatory issues
Recently. EFA board member Angela Daly presented to Deakin Law School on the issue of ‘legal and regulatory issues for 3D printing’. After a brief description of how 3D printers work as well as the 3D printer ecosystem of manufacturers, user and creator initiatives like RepRap and online design repositories, she then looked at a couple of issues that 3D printing poses for law and regulation. Firstly, 3D printing implicates…
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XKeyscore: collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’
Edward Snowden’s latest leak confirms the existence of an NSA program that allows analysts to search through vast databases about internet user’s activity without any prior authorisation. This program, known as XKeyscore, is the NSA’s “widest-reaching” surveillance system for tracking activity on the Internet. As Snowden told The Guardian back in June: “I, sitting at my desk,” said Snowden, could “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or…
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Human Rights and Communications Surveillance
Electronic Frontiers Australia this week signed onto the International Principles of the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, a set of international due process principles designed to protect privacy in the face of government surveillance. The 13 point statement of principles is intended to explain how existing human rights standards, international law and jurisprudence should apply to the new capabilities and risks of digital surveillance. The principles express 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.