Promoting And Protecting Digital Rights Since 1994
EFA is an independent non-profit association that relies on membership subscriptions and donations. If you’re concerned about digital rights in Australia, please join or donate today.
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National Broadband Network submission
EFA has lodged a submission on the National Broadband Network proposal. In our submission to a Senate Select Committee investigating the proposal we argued that the proposed Fibre To The Node (FTTN) model would most likely grant further monopoly power to Telstra because it would require drastic modifications to Telstra’s existing copper infrastructure through which most landline calls to domestic premises are currently carried, modifications which only Telstra would want…
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EFA joins calls to publish draft text of counterfeiting agreement
More than 100 public interest organisations from around the world today called on officials from the countries negotiating Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) — the United States, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand — to immediately publish the draft text of the agreement.
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EFA to speak at Software Freedom Day, Melbourne
On Saturday 20 September 2008, EFA Board Member Colin Jacobs and EFA Chair Dale Clapperton will speak at the Software Freedom Day event to be held in Melbourne, Australia. Starting at 11am, Colin will speak on the Rudd government’s current ‘clean feed’ Internet censorship agenda, and present a comparative analysis of ‘clean feed’ against other Internet censorship regimes around the world. Dale will discuss legal and policy issues of importance…
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EFA condemns Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiaton process: No transparency, No balance
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today expressed its concern about the lack of transparency in the development of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). EFA is also troubled by the little information that is available about the substantive content of the proposed plurilateral agreement, which threatens to dramatically alter the copyright balance in favour of corporate rights owners, impose significant liability on Internet Service Providers, and require the institution of invasive surveillance…
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EFA says Filtering Trial a Failure
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today labelled a recent government trial of ISP-based Internet filtering a failure. The recently released ACMA report entitled “Closed Environment Testing of ISP-Level Internet Content Filtering” showed that of the six unnamed ISP-based filters evaluated: One filter caused a 22% drop in speed even when it was *not* performing filtering; Only one of the six filters had an acceptable level of performance (a drop of 2%…
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EFA decries money wasted on Internet Filtering
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today expressed its disappointment at the Federal Government’s decision to fund its mandatory “clean-feed” Internet in the 2008-09 federal budget. “At a time when the Government is cutting services to fight inflation, it’s bewildering that they would decide to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a filter before feasibility trials are even complete,” said EFA spokesman Colin Jacobs. “Given the manifest impracticality of the…
Help fight for our digital rights
What We Do
Policy
We actively monitor a number of policy areas and specific issues. The topics below provide a detailed view of EFA’s policy positions.
Copyright
Australia’s copyright laws are outdated, inflexible and not fit for the digital age. As such, EFA is a long-standing supporter of reform of Australia’s Copyright Act.
Privacy & Security
Privacy is fundamentally about consent and control over access to information, and goes hand-in-hand with security. Privacy is a human right.
Censorship
Adults should be able to make their own informed decisions about what content they create and consume.
Encryption
Access to encryption technologies is vital for individuals and groups to be able to safeguard the security and privacy of their information.
Internet Safety
Surveillance is not safety. Safety for whom, against what? This complex problem is more likely to be exacerbated, rather than solved, by measures that allow for unaccountable surveillance and the undermining of communications security.
Surveillance
EFA is committed to ensuring that Australian’s home life is not subject to arbitrary interference.