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The Australian government is set to intensify its war against Internet freedom by forcing web users to install state-approved anti-virus software. If they fail to do so, they will be denied an Internet connection, or if their computer is later infected, the user’s connection will be terminated.
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Australians would be unable to access the internet without having anti-virus and firewall programs installed and a virus-free machine under a new plan put forward by a year-long parliamentary cyber-crime inquiry. (McGibbon wants users to install backdoors on their computers so ISPs can check if they have antivirus software installed. Sounds 'great'.)
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A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymou
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The Internet Industry Association (IIA)Â has revealed that the Attorney General's Department has been discussing the possibility of data disclosure laws with Australia's ISPs for eleven years
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A parody referencing Stephen Conroy's comments about the Internet.
links for 2010-06-22
links for 2010-06-21
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In response to recent reports about a possible data retention regime in Australia, the IIA issues the following statement to outline its position.
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Telecommunications industry sources have called the claims by Attorney-General media relations that web browsing history would not be recorded in a controversial data retention proposal "a bit cute" and a question of terminology and semantics.
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It should be clear by now that the Rudd government is not a government full of civil libertarians.
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Restaurants that force customers to pay illegal holiday surcharges are under fire for not complying with a year old change in the Trade Practices Act by the ACCC.
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opinion As I watched the Government’s new sickly-sweet TV advertisements released this weekend to promote its National Broadband Network project, I couldn’t help but feel as though I was being pleasurably lobotomised.
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American officials are searching for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks in an attempt to pressure him not to publish thousands of confidential and potentially hugely embarrassing diplomatic cables that offer unfiltered assessments of Middle East governments and leaders.
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The office of Attorney-General Robert McLelland today denied reports that a controversial data retention policy — dubbed “OzLog†online — being considered by his department could see Australians’ web browsing history tracked by internet service providers.
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An empty station | Leefe rates the world… The station is empty. Even the station staff have gone home. Maybe I was leaving
links for 2010-06-20
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The station is empty. Even the station staff have gone home. Maybe I was leaving work a little late on the night I took this.
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Any Australian government of any persuasion that attempted to construct in secret a surveillance scheme for monitoring the day-to-day activities of its citizens would almost certainly be destroyed the next time its citizens were allowed near a ballot box. Assuming, of course, it planned to allow them near the ballot box ever again.
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Telstra has signed an $11 billion deal with NBN Co to transfer customers from its copper network onto the National Broadband Network's fibre network and share Telstra's infrastructure. (So, why was this announced on a Sunday? Probably so if it went down badly, not as many people would notice?)
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The internet censorship policy has joined the government's list of "politically toxic subjects" and will almost certainly be shelved until after the federal election, Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam says. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd – already facing a voter backlash over several perceived policy failures – is expected to call the election before the end of the year and the feeling of many in Canberra is that next week will be the last sitting week of Parliament.
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US President Barack Obama would be granted powers to seize control of and even shut down the internet under a new bill that describes the global internet as a US "national asset". Local lobby groups and academics have rounded on the plan, saying that, rather than combat terrorists, it would actually do them "the biggest favour ever" by terrorising the rest of the world, which is now heavily reliant on cyberspace.
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Be very afraid, Big Brother is coming to the Nanny State. Of all the bizarre policy decisions, this one has to be the most extreme. ZDNet broke the story last week that the Federal Government is looking at bringing in laws that would force Internet Service Providers (ISPs), like Telstra and Optus, to document and save subscriber's web browsing history.
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AUSTRALIA is one of only two developed countries where the take-up of broadband internet connections declined last year, new figures show.
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IT READS like a James Bond novel: an enigmatic white-haired computer hacker; a soldier turned whistleblower; secret government correspondence; and the world's most powerful country desperate to contain the situation.
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More hype about Google collecting data from Wi-Fi networks. Remember people, bank transactions should be over an SSL connection, so anyone collecting wireless traffic will only get encrypted data.
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THE US Federal Trade Commission will investigate whether Apple's business practices harm competition in the market for software used on mobile devices, people familiar with the situation said.
An empty station
The station is empty. Even the station staff have gone home. Maybe I was leaving work a little late on the night I took this.
links for 2010-06-17
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The federal government is hiding controversial plans to force ISPs to store internet activity of all Australian internet users – regardless of whether they have been suspected of wrongdoing – for law-enforcement agencies to access.
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Australian Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis has issued a muted statement in reaction to a proposal — dubbed “OzLog†online — by the Federal Attorney-General’s Department which could see Australians’ email and telephone records tracked by internet service providers.
links for 2010-06-14
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Fresh from his battles with Internet filter opponents, Senator Stephen Conroy Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy today announced a “help button†for online kids.
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The computer places its call… Hello… Yes… No… Yes… Yes.. No. No. No. Ahhh….. What do computers talk about? And don't they sometimes sound a
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The Policy Laundering Project The United States and to a lesser extent the European Union are trying to force international
Frantic Computer by Green Chilli Music
The computer places its call… Hello… Yes… No… Yes… Yes.. No. No. No. Ahhh…..
What do computers talk about? And don’t they sometimes sound a little frantic?
This is an experimental piece. I was interested to try writing a tune using some of the sound effects that come with Garage Band.
Have a listen at MacJams: Frantic Computer
Edit: With the death of MacJames, this track has moved to Frantic Computer on Soundcloud.
links for 2010-06-13
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Facts about the problems and dangers of the proposed Australian internet filter
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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.
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Australian internet service providers may soon be forced to document and save all subscriber's web browsing history.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
links for 2010-06-12
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The federal government wants your personal internet data, and it does not want to have to apply to a court to get it. A revelation that the federal government wants Australia's 400-odd internet service providers to log and retain customers' private web browsing data so law enforcement officers can access it during criminal cases has alarmed the industry.
links for 2010-06-11
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iiNet this afternoon said it was briefed in late 2009 about a Federal Government proposal which could potentially see telcos required to keep records of web browsing history, telephone calls and emails of their users.
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If you know the details of someone's online reading and viewing habits you can learn a great deal about them; their politics, their interests, their sexual inclinations, even the state of their marriage.
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Hot on the heels of the wild accustion by Stephen Conroy that Google had committed the “single biggest breach of privacy in history“, and in the spirit of “anything you can do, we can do betterâ€, comes the revelation that the same government that he is a part of, via the Department of the Attorney-General, wishes to push the invasion of privacy far beyond the levels they accuse Google of doin
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The chief executive of internet provider Exetel this afternoon described as a “nanny state gone totally insane†a Federal Government proposal which could potentially see telcos required to keep records of web browsing history, telephone calls and emails of their users.
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The chairman of the Internet Industry Assocation, Peter Coroneos, has told the CIOs of many of Australia's universities that, should the movie studios succeed in their appeal against iiNet over copyright infringement, the universities would have almost no protection against damages claims brought against them for use of their networks for the unauthorised downloading or storage of copyright content.
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Consumer law nationally has been radically changed with the passing of new laws that prohibit standard form consumer contracts which contain unfair terms. These changes are likely to have a significant impact on SMEs and how they interact with their customers. (Also interesting from a customer point of view. ie what companies shouldn't put in their contracts)
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Attention all Australians. The spams and scams are coming through the portal. So you can prepare yourself appropriately, please view these images closely to learn what you’re up against…
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No one, including the IMF, seriously believes that the austerity program announced by Greece will work. Argentina had debt to GDP of around 60 per cent and a budget deficit of 6 per cent. Adjustments necessary to halve both failed.
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The government has reportedly confirmed that it has been looking at forcing ISPs to retain the web browsing history of Australian residents for future scrutiny.
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THE Federal Government is considering forcing internet providers like Telstra and Optus to keep records of what their customers do online. The records could include people's web browsing history and emails and be held for several years, according to technology website ZDNet.
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The Federal Government has confirmed it is considering a policy requiring Australian internet providers to retain precise data on how their users are using the internet, with the potential to include information on emails sent and — reportedly — their web browsing history.
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Companies who provide customers with a connection to the internet may soon have to retain subscriber's private web browsing history for law enforcement to examine when requested, a move which has been widely criticised by industry insiders.