links for 2010-06-13

The United States and to a lesser extent the European Union are trying to force international institutions as well as less powerful nations to adopt a wide variety of bad policies as part of the so-called "war on terror." This Website is intended to serve as a central clearinghouse of information and advocacy materials to help citizens, governments, and civil society groups to monitor international bodies and combat this strategy of policy laundering.

The term policy laundering is used to describe means to disguise the origin of political decisions, laws or international treaties.[1]. The term is based on the similar money laundering.

You’d think Minister Stephen Conroy, the man proposing the biggest regulatory change to the Australian internet in history, would have a firm grasp of the internet. I mean he doesn’t need to know the technical specifics on say an engineering level of how it works, but y’know, is a basic understanding too much to ask?

A new U.S. Senate bill would grant the president far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of or even shut down portions of the Internet.

The foreign policy priorities enumerated by the State Department, from Secretary of State Clinton to senior innovation advisor Alec J. Ross to case officers abroad, now include supporting Internet freedom around the world. As always with big ideas, the devil is in the details. "The issue for governments is that the same technology used for Internet freedom can be used for porn, copyright or terrorism," said Andrew McLaughlin, deputy chief technology officer at the White House, at Privacy Camp in Washington, D.C. this spring. Implementation of Net freedom is where the opinion of researchers, academics and public intellectuals diverge.

It was revealed today that the Australian Government has been making inquiries regarding a policy of storing the browsing history of every Australian Internet user1 in another move that displays the federal governments contempt for the privacy and civil liberties of the Australian people.

We, along with all other ISPs I assume, received the 'courtesy' email asking us to visit the fourth Reich's official sub-site where we could find the details of how to participate in Herr Krudd's and Obersturmfuhrer Conroy's scheme to purge the Fatherland of the filth emanating from the diseased brains of the untermenscen.

The Australian Democrats have expressed deep concern following reports that the Attorney General’s department is considering requiring all internet service providers (ISPs) to keep a record of everything their customers do online, including potentially every website visited and every email sent.

There has been a lot of talk both online and offline since yesterday’s revelation that the Australian government wishes to force ISPs to log internet browsing histories for an extended period of time for all users, without the need for a warrant.

Facts about the problems and dangers of the proposed Australian internet filter

Anything Europe does, Australia would like to think it can do better – and when it comes to snooping on individual internet usage, Australia is determined to lead the way.

Australian internet service providers may soon be forced to document and save all subscriber's web browsing history.

The federal government wants your personal internet data, and they don't want to have to apply to a court to get it. Revelations that the federal government wants Australia's 400-odd internet service providers (ISPs) to log and retain customers' web browsing data, so law enforcement can access it during criminal cases, have sparked alarm in the industry.

A POLICY adviser to the world's largest social networking site, Facebook, says he doubts the Australian government's proposed mandatory internet filter will work. A former member of the US Federal Trade Commission, Mozelle Thompson described the Rudd government's plans for an internet filter as a challenging proposal. "The proposal that they're making is a static proposal for a dynamic problem,'' he told reporters.

Restaurants and cafes across Australia are breaking the law more than a year after public holiday and weekend surcharges were banned,yet not one has been prosecuted by the national consumer watchdog.

Australia’s division of the Pirate Party has declared war on the Federal Government over a controversial proposal which could potentially see telcos required to keep records of web browsing history, telephone calls and emails of their users.

The recent shift of attacks on internet services and ISPs from our beloved Professor of the Portal Stephen Conroy to Attorney General Robert McClelland is no small thing.