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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Australians deserve an Open Internet
Electronic Frontiers Australia today launched a new campaign against the Rudd Government’s mandatory Internet filtering plan. The Open Internet campaign emphasises that Australians want an Open Internet that is free from an impractical and costly policy of Government imposed mandatory Internet filtering. “This policy has caused considerable anxiety amongst Australian Internet users,” said EFA Vice-Chair Colin Jacobs. “The idea that the Government will be inserting itself in every Internet connection…
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Mandatory Filtering: Minimum legitimacy requirements
EFA has put together a submission to the DBCDE accountability and transparency review on what measures would be required to make mandatory ISP filtering legitimate. Many thanks for Irene Graham and Kylie Pappalardo for their tremendous help in putting this together. If you want to put in a submission, the deadline is today. You can see our submission for some suggestions. The point we’re making is that filtering is a…
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Vigilantism is bad for the cause
Internet vigilante group Anonymous have stepped up their campaign against the Rudd Government and its Internet censorship scheme today. “Operation Titstorm” began with denial of service attacks against various Government websites including that of the Prime Minister. EFA naturally condemns these attacks – not only are they illegal, but they damage the cause by playing to stereotypes of filter opponents as juveniles motivated by a desire to keep the Internet…
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EFA’s draft R18+ for games discussion paper
The public consultation on the introduction of an R18+ for computer games closes at the end of the month. Jessi Citizen, on behalf of EFA and in conjunction with Ausgamers, has prepared a draft response to the consultation that sets out our understanding of the issues and our arguments. Draft submission paper (MS Word format) In the spirit of community involvement, and to ensure that we have the strongest argument…
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Sanity prevails: iiNet did not authorise its users' infringements
[edit: for more analysis, see EFA Chair Nic Suzor’s blog post: iiNet did not ‘authorise’; providing internet access is not providing the ‘means’ of infringement’; safe harbours are effective.] And with one tweet, iiNet CEO Michael Malone announces the result that we’ve all been waiting for: IiNet did not authorize the infringements #iitrial More analysis will follow when the full written judgment is handed down, but it is apparent that…
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SA Electoral amendments and anonymity online
There has been a lot of discussion about the recent changes to the South Australian Electoral Act 1985, and in particular the amendment to s 116 which extends the requirement of attribution to the internet. The law seems poorly drafted and unworkable, but it may not pose as much of a threat as is suspected. See over the jump for my analysis.
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.