ADVOCACY, POLICY & NEWS
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“Everyone Made Themselves the Hero.” Remembering Aaron Swartz
On January 18, 2012, the Internet went dark. Hundreds of websites went black in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). The bills would have created a “blacklist” of censored websites based on accusations of copyright infringement. SOPA was en route to quietly…
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Big data: more isn’t always better
Big data is big news these days. But most organisations just end up hoarding vast reams of data, leaving them with a massive repository of unstructured – or “dark” – data that is of little use to anyone. Given the potential benefits of big data, it’s crucial that we find…
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Five New Year’s Resolutions to protect your Digital Rights
New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to maintain. Whether you’re planning to eat better, quit smoking, exercise more or call your mother more frequently, it’s easy enough at the start, but very few people maintain their resolutions past the 1st of February. So we’ve put together this list of easy…
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Downside of fitness trackers and health apps is loss of privacy
At the touch of an app, Emma tracks her diabetes. She enters food, exercise, weight and blood sugar levels, then sets up medication reminders. Suzanne uses the latest wearable device to track her running route and distances walked. As she has not slept too well in the past month, she…
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Government considering expansion of data retention to civil cases [Updated]
Yesterday the Attorney-General’s Department announced that they are seeking input in relation to expanding the scope of the mandatory data retention scheme to include civil cases. This could mean that retained data is made available for a range of civil matters including: copyright infringement cases family law cases employment-related cases…
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Blocking access to illegal file-share websites won’t stop illegal downloading
The Australian Federal Court ruled last week that TPG, Optus, Telstra and other internet service providers (ISPs) must take “reasonable steps” to stop customers accessing file-sharing websites The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, TorrentHound and Torrentz. In total, Australian ISPs must block access to 61 domains registered to these four websites, or to…