Well now, that was a long year. Here’s a quick reminder of all the happenings in the digital rights space that the team at Digital Rights Watch has been working on.
U.S. FCC repeal of Net Neutrality will have global consequences
Australian digital rights advocates today condemned the decision of the United States Federal Communications Commission to dismantle the agency’s 2015 Open Internet Order which required internet service providers to treat all internet traffic equally.
Digital Rights in Australia: Report
The University of Sydney have published a report into Digital Rights in Australia, which explores urgent questions about the nature of our rights now and into the future.
Using PGP
PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy. It’s an encryption program that’s mainly used for email encryption, but it can be used for encrypting any sort of data.
Digital Rights Watch and Electronic Frontiers Australia urge the Australian Government to reinstate phone and internet access to asylum seekers
Digital Rights Watch and Electronic Frontiers Australia urge the Australian Government to ensure that the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees being held in offshore detention camps on Manus Island (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru are respected.
An open letter to Attorney General George Brandis
An open letter in relation to the treatment of peaceful activists protesting United States military operations facilitated by surveillance conducted at Australia’s Pine Gap facility.
Crowd-Sourced Intelligence Agency
The Crowd-Sourced Intelligence Agency (CSIA) is an interactive artwork that allows users to perform the role of an intelligence analyst through an online interface.
Australia to face human rights scrutiny in week of UN Human Rights Council vote
During the same week that Australia is expected to be granted a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, an expert UN Committee will grill the Australian Government over its own human rights record.
Attacks on encryption
A report on our recent event held at QUT on the state of encryption in Australia.
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.
Attorney General George Brandis declared “Villain” by Access Now for comments undermining encryption
Australian Attorney General George Brandis has been awarded a ‘villain’ award in a global digital rights ceremony
Concerns over proposed plan for national facial recognition database
Digital Rights Watch has expressed deep concerns over proposed plans that would require drivers license photographs to be included in a national facial recognition database.
Report: Australia’s Compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
This report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee examines Australia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Cross-border access to data: Council of Europe submission
A global coalition of civil society organisations have submitted to the Council of Europe its comments on how protect human rights when developing new rules on cross-border access to electronic evidence.
Intelligence sharing a threat to democracy: privacy and human rights organisations launch international campaign
An international coalition of 30+ organisations led by Privacy International (PI) has written to national intelligence oversight bodies in over 40 countries, including Australia, seeking information on the intelligence sharing activities of their governments.
Metadata analysis of Gillian Triggs reveals personal information open to unwarranted government surveillance
An assessment of the metadata of former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Gillian Triggs over the course of just one day provided enough information to reveal her home city, age details, and confidential details of upcoming speeches, board meetings and conversations.
Big brother attitude to public servant’s social media is gross overstep of power
Online advocacy group Digital Rights Watch has expressed serious concerns over social media guidelines for federal public servants released today.