EFA’s 2017 Wish List
As the new year approaches, it’s again time to set out our Wish List and priorities for the year ahead. This list repeats many of the same topics as last year as there has been little movement on many of these issues, partly due to the election interrupting the legislative programme, but also, we’d suggest, […]
Election 2016 Scorecard
Recently, we released our Election 2016 scorecard. We were really pleased to see a lot of substantive and thoughtful replies from the smaller parties. As in 2013, Pirate Party Australia and the Australian Greens have scored full marks. For the first time this year, the Science Party and the Liberal Democrats have also scored full […]
An Open Letter to the Liberal and Labor Parties on encryption and privacy technologies
In January 2016 Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), along with the Australian Privacy Foundation, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, BluePrint for Free Speech and FutureWise wrote to Prime Minister Turnbull asking for his support for strong encryption and for his commitment to reject any law, policy or mandate that would undermine digital security. The response received […]
The FBI drops its case against Apple that only made everyone’s security worse
The FBI has succeeded in hacking into an iPhone that belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook without Apple’s help. As a consequence, the FBI has dropped its legal case that was trying to force Apple to do what has been done by an unknown “third party”. Given the emotional investment by the FBI in […]
The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp
In a recent edition of the New York Times, Matt Apuzzo reports that the Department of Justice is locked in a “prolonged standoff” with WhatsApp. The government is frustrated by its lack of real-time access to messages protected by the company’s end-to-end encryption. The story may represent a disturbing preview of the next front in […]