• Secure Messaging Scorecard

    Which apps and tools actually keep your messages safe?   Our good friends at EFF have just published their Secure Messaging Scorecard. In the face of widespread Internet surveillance, we need a secure and practical means of talking to each other from our phones and computers. Many companies offer “secure…

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  • The Ethics of Big Data

    This article, by Angela Daly from EFA’s Policy & Research Standing Committee, was originally published on the St James Ethics Centre website. Big Data is one of the current much-hyped and much-talked-about technology trends, along with the Internet of Things, wearable devices and 3D printing. But what precisely is this ‘big…

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  • The 90s and Now: FBI and its Inability to Cope with Encryption

    This post, by Amul Kalia, was originally published on EFF’s Deeplinks blog on 29th October 2014.  Australian authorities are using many of the same arguments, including to justify the mandatory data retention legislation introduced into parliament last week. Recently, FBI Director James B. Comey, along with several government officials, have…

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  • Does Tor + Facebook = better privacy?

    This post is by Thomas Karpiniec, Chair of EFA’s Policy & Research Committee. On Friday Facebook announced that they are making their website available as a Tor hidden service. This will improve the Facebook experience for anyone who uses Tor to make their web browsing more anonymous, but there are…

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  • Data Retention a boon for Copyright Trolls

    As AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin confirmed to a press conference in Canberra yesterday, mandatory data retention will include data that will enable copyright holders to chase people they believe have infringed their copyright. Communications Minister Turnbull tried to play this down, saying, “They do this pretty much in real-time, so the…

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