Latest Articles

Time to cut ties with the digital oligarchs and rewire the web

Posted on March 19, 2018 | in Articles

Facebook’s reckless vanity has made the headlines again, with the revelation that data it held on about 50 million users was exploited commercially without their consent, and that when Facebook found out about this, it did pathetically little. We only know this thanks to the bravery of a whistleblower. This is yet another scandal in a troubled period for the company, with a growing sense that it is all profit, no responsibility. But the current malaise goes wider than Facebook. On the internet more widely, the advertising-supported model has demanded its payout, and as a result our experience of the web is getting worse. Like rats scrambling to get back on a sinking ship, senior former-Facebookers are lining up to express regrets. It all feels too little, too late.

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Australian Digital Rights Organisations Call For Politicians To Clarify Their Dealings With Cambridge Analytica

Posted on March 18, 2018 | in Media releases

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE BY ELECTRONIC FRONTIERS AUSTRALIA, FUTURE WISE, AUSTRALIAN PRIVACY FOUNDATION, DIGITAL RIGHTS WATCH

In light of the revelations that Cambridge Analytica has reportedly misused the data of over 50 million people on Facebook, Australia’s leading digital and civil rights advocates call on all Australian governments and political parties to categorically answer the following questions:

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Data breach notification scheme an important step towards building trust with public's right to privacy

Posted on February 21, 2018 | in Media releases

Privacy advocates Digital Rights Watch have welcomed the start of a national mandatory data breach notification scheme. The Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Bill 2016 created a new obligation for organisations that store personal information to notify individuals when their security systems have been breached, and the scheme goes into effect from today.

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