POLICY NEWS, COMMENTARY & DIGITAL PRIVACY TIPS - Electronic Frontiers Australia

Encryption, Security

The Future of Ransomware

26 May 2017

Ransomware isn’t new, but it’s increasingly popular and profitable. The concept is simple: Your computer gets infected with a virus that encrypts your files until you pay a ransom. It’s extortion taken to its networked extreme. The criminals provide step-by-step instructions on how to pay, sometimes even offering a help…
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Encryption, Surveillance

Open Rights Group: The Manchester attack

25 May 2017

Open Rights Group wishes to express its sympathy for the victims of the vile and brutal attack in Manchester. We condemn these violent attacks, which seem even more abhorrent when deliberately targeted at children and young people. We hope that law enforcement and intelligence agencies will help to bring those…
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Bullying, harassment, Censorship

After the ‘Facebook Files’, the social media giant must be more transparent

24 May 2017

Most people on Facebook have probably seen something they wish they hadn’t, whether it be violent pictures or racist comments. How the social media giant decides what is and isn’t acceptable is often a mystery. Internal content guidelines, recently published in The Guardian, offer new insight into the mechanics of…
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Copyright, Fair Use

Copyright for Australia that makes sense. That’s fair.

23 May 2017

Volunteer Wikipedians in Australia are highlighting the need for the introduction of fair use in Australia. You can visit FairCopyrightOz to learn about how Wikipedia does, and Australia could, benefit from it. Imagine a land in which everything was outlawed, except for the things that were specifically allowed. Our laws…
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Data Retention

Data retention has always been about a lot more than ‘national security’

7 May 2017

Attorney-General George Brandis told us in November 2014 the data retention regime “applies only to the most serious crime, to terrorism, to international and transnational organised crime, to paedophilia, where the use of metadata has been particularly useful as an investigative tool, … only to crime and only to the…
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Data Retention, Media Releases, Whistleblowing

Data retention: universal warrant requirement is only effective protection

1 May 2017

Last week’s revelation by the Australian Federal Police that they illegally accessed the retained telecommunications data (‘metadata’) of a journalist without first obtaining a warrant demonstrates the complete lack of effective protection provided by the current legislation. AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin asserted that ‘the police officers investigating the leak did…
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The Future of Ransomware

Open Rights Group: The Manchester attack

After the ‘Facebook Files’, the social media giant must be more transparent

Copyright for Australia that makes sense. That’s fair.

Data retention has always been about a lot more than ‘national security’

Data retention: universal warrant requirement is only effective protection