Last Updated: 1 July 2007

This document is the Privacy Policy of Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. (EFA), a voluntary non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of online civil liberties and online privacy.

Contents


Collection and use of personal information

Web Site

EFA does not intentionally collect personally identifiable information about visitors to our web site, unless you knowingly and voluntarily provide your personal information, for example, by filling in our online membership form.

Like most websites, when accessing EFA’s web site, log files are generated by the web server that show the IP address of the visitor, date, time, and pages visited.

We review information in our web site logs from time to time and the logs are periodically deleted. Information in web logs is used in the aggregate to generate statistics about access to our site such as which parts of our site are the most popular.

We collect and compile standard web analytics data in order to better understand the traffic patterns and visitor behaviour for our sites. It is not used for any other purpose and we do not collate or access personally identifiable information. In order to compile web analytics data, we make use of software known as Piwik, an open source solution that is hosted by us. This means that no information about visitors to this site is passed to a third party in relation to the collection of web analytics data. For visitors that have Javascript disabled in their browser, Piwik will send a tracking image which is used to collect analytics data. This tracking image is only used for tracking analytics data relating to EFA’s website.

Piwik does offer a feature for users to opt-out of analytics data collection altogether. To take advantage of this opt-out feature, please select below.

Our site occasionally sets cookies, a standard web tool, in order to allow our software to recognise return visitors – for example, return commenters on blog posts.

Public Mailing Lists

EFA provides a number of electronic mailing lists (public discussion and announcement lists) and subscription to these is opt-in, that is, we do not add email addresses to our mailing lists without express prior consent. The majority of our lists use an automated subscription process that asks you to provide your email address and then sends you an email requesting confirmation by return email, to prevent others from subscribing your email address without your knowledge. Hence, only you or someone who receives email to your address (e.g. perhaps a family member) can subscribe you. In the case of EFA lists that do not use this automated subscription process, subscription requests are processed by one of our list administrators who also ensure email addresses are not added without the express prior consent of the addressee.

Personal information provided by you to EFA by opt-in (there is no other way) subscription to EFA’s public mailing lists is used by us solely for list administration purposes and will not be disclosed to other organisations or individuals, except as advised under Disclosure below. EFA does not and will not sell, rent or share our mailing lists, nor do we make the list of subscribers available to other subscribers. Of course, if you choose to post a message to a list, other subscribers will become aware of your email address.

EFA does not make available a publicly or subscriber accessible archive of subscriber postings to a list unless the availability of an archive is stated on the information page about the particular list (for links to information pages, see the list of EFA mail lists page). If, in the future, the archiving policy for any list is proposed to be changed, list subscribers will be notified in advance by email to the list so that subscribers may choose whether or not they wish to send postings to the list in future. In the event of an archiving policy change, archiving will commence after notification to list subscribers and prior postings will not be included in the archive.

Membership Details

When you apply to join EFA or renew your membership, we ask you to provide personal information, such as your name, postal address and email address. EFA does not and will not sell, rent or share our membership database or membership mailing list. Information you provide to us is used solely for the purpose of membership administration and will not be disclosed to other organisations or individuals except as advised under Disclosure below.

Disclosure of personal information

Personal information you provide to us will not be disclosed to other organisations or individuals without your express permission or legal compulsion such as a Court order, except as outlined in this section.

While EFA prefers not to disclose personal information you provide to us without your express permission, there are some circumstances where it is necessary that we disclose information with your implied consent. EFA defines “implied consent” narrowly. Such circumstances are limited to those substantially similar with regard to necessity to the following examples:

  • EFA’s web pages and electronic mailing lists, like those of many other organisations and companies, are hosted by external organisations and/or individuals. Information that you provide to EFA via the Internet passes through one or more of these service providers’ systems in order to be received by EFA, and/or, we may disclose information to such a service provider when necessary to provide you with a requested service such as to subscribe you to one of our mailing lists. In this regard EFA arranges hosting services only with organisations or individuals who have privacy policies/practices that are in accord with EFA’s.
  • When you provide your credit card details for the purpose of making an online payment or donation, these details are disclosed to our credit card payment processing provider/s. In this regard EFA uses only organisations who are required by law to comply with the provisions of the Federal Privacy Act 1988.

Security of personal information

EFA keeps membership and mailing list subscriber details and web server logs on controlled facilities that are secured against unauthorised access. Proof of identity is required before information is released to any person, including a member.

EFA uses encryption to protect personal information provided to us via our online forms (e.g. membership application form).

Correct, update or delete personal information

Membership Details

If you want to correct or update your personal information in relation to your EFA membership, or be removed from our membership database and members mailing list, please contact:


or see EFA’s contact information page for our postal address and fax number.

Mailing List Subscriptions

If you want to change your email address on, or be removed from, any of our public mailing lists, please refer to the instructions in the footer of messages to the relevant list and also available on the list’s information page. Links to information pages are available on the EFA Mailing Lists page.

Changes to Privacy Policy

This policy may be updated from time to time, but any changes will not reduce the privacy protection set out above and will not affect information previously collected, unless required by law or otherwise beyond EFA’s control, e.g. technological changes. Any such changes to this policy that adversely affect privacy protection of EFA members or EFA mailing list subscribers will be advised by email to the EFA Members’ Mail List and/or other EFA mailing list/s as applicable.

If you have any queries or comments concerning this privacy policy, contact:


(preferably with subject line “EFA Privacy Policy”)

or see EFA’s contact information page for our postal address and fax number.