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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Discussing the national facial recognition database
On Monday, 9th October, our Executive Officer Jon Lawrence spoke with Steve Austin on ABC Radio Brisbane about the decision by COAG to implement a comprehensive national facial recognition database including photos from all Australian driver’s licences and the threats this ‘Capability’ poses to civil liberties. Listen to the interview here, from 39:14.
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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 will give people a false sense of comfort. Importantly, it will allow politicians and officials…
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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 Liberties, Liberty Victoria, South Australian Council for Civil Liberties and Electronic Frontiers Australia. The creation…
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AGM 2017: documents published; Board election starts today.
All supporting documents for the 2017 AGM, including the Proxy Form, are now available on our 2017 AGM page. The AGM will be held (on Internet Relay Chat) at 15:00 AEDT on Sunday 8th October 2017. Proxy forms are due by 12:00 AEDT on Sunday 8th October 2017. The voting period for the election of Board members will commence at 15:00 AEDT today (5th October). Eligible members should receive a…
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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 another tool to prevent terrorism by “sharing and matching of facial images from existing records…
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Why the marriage equality poll is a privacy issue
What is it about August 9th? Last year it was that evening of national beating-your-head-against-your-laptop as the Census website went down, and stayed down. This year, the government decided the mark the anniversary of #censusfail by handing the architects of that omnishambles, the ABS, the hospital pass of 2017: responsibility for a national same-sex marriage poll. (Me, I marked the date by baking the ABS this special anniversary cake. No,…
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.