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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ASIC admits to blocking another 250,000 sites
As reported by Bernard Keane in Crikey yesterday, Australia’s corporate regulator – ASIC – has admitted to another incident in which a website blocking request has lead to the inadvertent blocking of thousands of websites. In a written statement [PDF: 474KB] provided to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, ASIC have admitted that one previous blocking request in which they specified an IP address, rather than a domain name, resulted in some…
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Sky news interviews Angela Daly on the TPP
View Stan Grant’s recent interview with EFA Board Member Angela Daly on Sky News regarding the risks of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. Support EFA’s work promoting digital freedom, access and privacy by joining or donating today.
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Unlisted numbers: charges to continue
The Senate Committee on Environment and Communications has published a report which recommends against prohibiting charges for silent (unlisted) numbers. This is a very disappointing outcome given that all but one of submissions received (including EFA’s), strongly recommended the introduction of such a prohibition. The Australian Law Reform Commission also recommended the introduction of a prohibition, back in 2008. The only submission which opposed a prohibition was that from Telstra.…
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Australia joins Open Government partnership
Electronic Frontiers Australia welcomes the Attorney-General’s recent announcement that Australia will join the Open Government Partnership. EFA have long campaigned for greater transparency in governance and decision making, particularly those matters relating to digital freedom, access and privacy. The announcement comes just days after it was revealed that the Australian Securities and Investment Commission had inadvertently blocked up to 1,200 legitimate websites without any public oversight. EFA described the incident as…
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s313 Website Blocking – the Plot Thickens
Under intense questioning from Greens Senator Scott Ludlam at Senate Estimates hearings this week, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Environment has revealed that there are three agencies that have used section 313 of the Telecommunications Act to block websites. These agencies are ASIC, as publicised recently, the Australian Federal Police, who the Communications Minister announced last year would be using this power to block ‘the worst of the…
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EFA welcomes Privacy Breach legislation
EFA welcomes yesterday’s announcement by the Attorney-General that legislation is to be introduced to Federal Parliament today to introduce mandatory reporting of data breaches affecting private data. This legislation has been a long time coming, having first been recommended by the Australian Law Reform Commission back in 2008, and EFA has been a strong supporter of the principle of mandatory data breach notification for some time. This legislation will require…
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.