australia Archives : Page 2 of 2 : PIA

Jun 26, 2017 |
Caleb Chen |
Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments,

Australia wants to be able to read your encrypted messages

Australia’s Attorney General Senator Brandis announced over the weekend that he would be leading the discussion on squeezing tech firms and forcing them to encryption backdoors in secure messaging apps at the next annual meeting of public security ministers and attorney generals from the Five Eyes countries (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and … Continue reading “Australia wants to be able to read your encrypted messages”

Apr 28, 2017 |
Caleb Chen |
General Privacy News, Governments,

Australian Federal Police unapologetic after accessing a journalist’s metadata without a warrant

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) admitted on Friday that they had illegally accessed call records metadata of an Australian journalist without seeking the proper warrant beforehand. In Australia, like many other countries, there are specific protections to keep law enforcement from willy nilly seeking private information on journalists and whistleblowers. To access the metadata that all … Continue reading “Australian Federal Police unapologetic after accessing a journalist’s metadata without a warrant”

Apr 14, 2017 |
Caleb Chen |
General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Not even the telcos like Australia’s mandatory metadata retention scheme aka the Big Brother policy

Now that Australia’s mandatory metadata retention regime is officially started, many are wondering how we got to this point and what we can do to stay private now that every piece of Australian origin metadata is being stored for two years. While companies and customers alike have known this day would come since 2015, both … Continue reading “Not even the telcos like Australia’s mandatory metadata retention scheme aka the Big Brother policy”

Apr 12, 2017 |
Caleb Chen |
General Privacy News, Governments, VPN,

4/13 is Australia’s National Get a VPN Day as ISPs and telecoms officially begin metadata retention

April 13th, 2017 is now “National Get a VPN” Day for the entire country of Australia. In March 2015, Australia passed the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill (info). The law mandates metadata retention by Australian internet service providers (ISPs) and telecommunication companies (known as carrier service providers in Australia). Australians scramble to get a VPN … Continue reading “4/13 is Australia’s National Get a VPN Day as ISPs and telecoms officially begin metadata retention”

Jan 3, 2017 |
Caleb Chen |
General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Despite promises, metadata gathered by Australian mass surveillance may be made available to civil litigators, not just law enforcement

Australia, one of many countries that conducts mass surveillance with mandatory metadata logging laws, is planning to make your private information available in civil proceedings. When Australia initially passed the mandatory logging laws in 2014, government proponents, such as AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin, emphasized that information was only supposed to be made available for the … Continue reading “Despite promises, metadata gathered by Australian mass surveillance may be made available to civil litigators, not just law enforcement”

Dec 16, 2016 |
Caleb Chen |
Censorship, General Privacy News, Governments,

Court approves Australian #siteblock on The Pirate Bay, Solarmovie, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt, and others

Australian Federal Court has ordered that 61 websites associated with The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, TorrentHound, SolarMovie, and Torrentz, be blocked by Australia’s internet service providers (ISPs). Australian internet users have been rebelling against the court order en masse and reporting their dismay using the Twitter hashtag: #siteblock. The site blocks have been enacted under a … Continue reading “Court approves Australian #siteblock on The Pirate Bay, Solarmovie, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt, and others”