Stories about: Electronic Frontiers Australia

A US mandate that airline passenger information be sent to the American government prior to their arrival has come into question following a decision last week in the European Court of Justice that brands the process as illegal.

The Federal government may soon implement fingerprint scans for clients of social security agency Centrelink, with two federal ministers so far refusing to rule out the proposition.

A scrap has broken out between two Australian online watchdogs over the country's proposed anti-spam legislation.

Electronic Frontiers Australia has trenchantly criticised the Australian federal “anti-spam” bill, a phrase EFA insists on putting in quotation marks. The proposed legislation is not really an anti-spam measure, says the online freedoms and rights lobby. In its present form, it both permits some messages most people would classify as spam and prohibits some “unsolicited commercial emails” such as job offers in response to a published CV, which the recipient would no doubt wish to receive.

A draft cybercrime code of practice that would require member ISPs to log subscriber usage for up to 12 months is contrary to privacy principles, claims Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA).

A proposal to make it as difficult for Australians to open an Internet account as to open a bank account has drawn stinging criticism from online civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA).

Private sector organisations are conducting their own cybercrime investigations with little regard for legal sanctions including the Telecommunications (Interception) Act, it was revealed in a parliamentary hearing into cybercrime.

Privacy advocates have dubbed the development of a privacy code of conduct for the biometrics industry an "abject failure" after being excluded from consultations.

Internet service providers may be forced to assist in criminal investigations and face more incidents of data surveillance if proposed changes to the laws on e-mail interception by law enforcement agencies proceed.

Moves to build privacy-law compliant IT systems may prove ineffectual in the wake of the new breed of self-propagating viruses. The impact could leave IT managers to face litigation if their company is hit by a virus or Trojan horse that exposes a database of personal information.

Complicated, ready to pounce on customers and revenue and a sleeping giant about to wake. No, it's not a new computer virus, but changes in the Privacy Act which becomes law on December 21. Sandra Rossi reports on the measures companies are taking to meet and handle the changes