
ADVOCACY, POLICY & NEWS
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Government says NO to expanding data retention to civil cases
Just before Easter, the government announced that it will not be expanding access to telecommunications data (‘metadata’) to civil litigants. This is an important victory. Had the government allowed even a limited expansion of access, it would almost certainly have been just the first of a number of such expansions. It’s…
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Get a VPN today!
From today, 13th April 2017, all Australian telecommunication providers are now required to collect a whole range of your telecommunications data (‘metadata’) and retain it for two full years, so that it can be requested by government agencies. This data includes information about your phone usage (including texts and your…
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Bytes & Rights 2017 – Perth
The Bytes and Rights 2017 conference is being held as part of the Festival of the Web, an 8-day series of international conferences in early April in Perth. See the full program of Festival of the Web events. Bytes and Rights is a conference focused on the many issues around…
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What is Fair? Karen Chester from the Productivity Commission
Good morning. Thank you Professor Giblin and congratulations on the launch of yours and Professor Weatherall’s book – What If We Could Reimagine Copyright? An anthology of ten thoughtful essays that collectively make for a forward‑looking treatise on copyright. And my thanks to the Australian Digital Alliance for inviting me…
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Bots without borders: how anonymous accounts hijack political debate
A bot (short for robot) performs highly repetitive tasks by automatically gathering or posting information based on a set of algorithms. They can create new content and interact with other users like any human would. But the power is always with the individuals or organisations unleashing the bot. Politicalbots.org reported…
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Mobiles, metadata and the meaning of ‘personal information’
The Federal Court last week determined not to resolve the great privacy question leftover like a bad hangover from 2013: When is information ‘about’ Ben, and when is it ‘about’ a device or a network? While at first glance you might think that the Privacy Commissioner losing an appeal would…