EFA today lodged a submission with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), opposing a recently announced plan by online auction site eBay to require all Australian buyers and sellers to use PayPal for eBay purchases in most circumstances.

Many eBay buyers and sellers have very valid reasons for preferring not to use PayPal.  Their choice of payment method should not be overridden by eBay in the name of commercial expediency or increased profits.

EFA believes that eBay’s proposed changes are without any substantive public benefits, and that any public benefits that may result would be outweighed by the harm to competition and consumers resulting from the changes.  EFA further believes that eBay’s proposed changes may constitute a misuse of market power, contrary to s 46(1) of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

Filed in: General

A substantial amount of media and public attention on the issue of workplace surveillance has been created by an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday 14 April 2008.  That article quoted the Commonwealth Attorney-General Mr Robert McClelland as saying that Labor intended to give extra powers to intercept telecommunications to private-sector companies dealing with critical infrastructure, and that these new powers were necessary to avoid the threat of cyber terrorism.  These powers are currently only held by a select few intelligence, police, and anti-corruption organisations specifically named in legislation.

Under the law as it currently stands, it is illegal to intercept a communication passing over a telecommunications system unless the person making the communication knows it is being intercepted.  This is why, for example, when you telephone a call-centre you will usually hear a recorded message that your call may be monitored for various purposes.  Similarly, if a company’s Internet usage policy notifies employees that their Internet usage may be monitored, then that monitoring would not be an illegal interception under Commonwealth law, although State and Territory laws dealing specifically with the issue of workplace surveillance may impose additional requirements in some states.

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Filed in: General, Interception

The EFA Board has released its Annual Report to members for 2006/07.

Filed in: General

Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) is appalled by Friday’s announcement that the federal Coalition government will force all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Australia to provide ‘filtered’ Internet connections upon request. This ‘initiative’ is nothing more than a tiresome repeat of previously announced and abandoned policies, and comes before the government has even conducted their recently-announced feasibility study of ISP-level filtering.

The government has also failed to implement their National Filter Scheme, first announced in June 2006 and aimed at providing free PC-based filters, and they have now announced it once again. The Minister has no credibility in this matter.

‘Internet censorship to “save the children” has always been a political “free kick” for both sides of politics,’ said EFA Chair Dale Clapperton. ‘It seems that in the lead-up to the federal election, the Howard government wants to be seen to be “doing something” to make the Internet safe for children.’

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Filed in: General, Media Releases