Major Privacy Threat: EFA Condemns Government’s Social Media Age Ban
Electronic Frontiers Australia condemns the government’s recent confirmation of a social media ban for under-16s. We firmly oppose any age-based restrictions that intrude on young Australians’ privacy, digital rights, and access to potentially life-saving information. “This ban represents an authoritarian and unnecessary step toward government intrusion into the online lives of young Australians, undermining their […]
Minister Shorten: Why should Australians trust the Trusted Exchange System with our personal data?
This statement was written by EFA’s chair John Pane. Tuesday 13th August 2024, Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten released details of the government’s new Trust Exchange system to extend the recently passed – and still flawed – Digital ID legislation. Little information outside the Minister’s speech is available. It remains unclear if this is […]
The democratic obligation to repeal authoritarian laws
A society’s norms can shift fast. In the last decade, compulsory metadata retention for broad surveillance purposes has gone from a controversy to a scandal, to a fact of Australian life, to an insufficient power that needs to be augmented by yet more invasive ones. Military control over cryptography and other exports has gone from […]
Coalition's Cyber-Safety policy: mostly harmless
Internet issues appear to have finally gotten some oxygen in this election. The National Broadband Network and the Coalition’s alternative broadband plan have gotten a lot of coverage in recent days. We’ll have a breakdown of the two policies for you in our next update. Let’s turn, instead, to the issue of “cyber-safety”, the banner […]
