Let’s face it, we’ll be no safer with a national facial recognition database

A commitment to share the biometric data of most Australians – including your driving licence photo – agreed at Thursday’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting will result in a further erosion of our privacy. That sharing is not necessary. It will be costly. But will it save us from terrorism? Not all, although it […]

Comprehensive national face database incompatible with a free society

Australia’s leading privacy and civil liberties organisations condemn the decision by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to provide all images from state and territory driver’s licence databases to the federal National Facial Biometric Matching Capability. These organisations are the Australian Privacy Foundation, Digital Rights Watch, Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, NSW Council for Civil […]

National Facial Recognition: towards the Panopticon

The latest mass shooting in Las Vegas over the weekend has provided an opportunity for Prime Minister Turnbull to increase focus on the National Facial Biometric Matching Capability at the Coalition of Australian Governments counter-terror meeting scheduled to occur tomorrow (5th October). The Attorney General’s Department states that the National Facial Biometric Matching Capability is […]

Discussing the government’s encryption plans

Our Executive Officer Jon Lawrence joined Jane Hebiton on Perth’s RTR FM yesterday to discuss the government’s plans to force providers to give access to encrypted communications. You can listen to the podcast here.              

83 organisations and experts from “Five Eyes” nations demand respect for strong encryption

Today, 83 organisations and individuals from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States have sent letters to their respective governments insisting that government officials defend strong encryption. The letter comes on the heels of a meeting of the “Five Eyes” ministerial meeting in Ottawa, Canada earlier this week. The “Five Eyes” […]