With less than a day to go before the start of mandatory data retention, the Department of Communications and the Arts has launched Stay Smart Online Week with the slogan “Your Business is YOUR business”.
The Australian Privacy Foundation agrees, and so in line with Stay Smart Online Week’s goal of engaging and educating members of the community about online safety and security, the Foundation is proud to recommend the following sources for those seeking information about:
CPJ Journalist Security Guide - Technology Security
EFF Secure Messaging Scorecard
EPIC Online Guide to Practical Privacy Tools
Joe Kissell's 'Take Control of Your Online Privacy' (free eBook)
Information Security for Journalists (free eBook)
Pirate Party Australia Data Retention Protection Guide
Sen. Scott Ludlam - #StopDataRetention
TorrentFreak – Which VPN Services Take Your Anonymity Seriously? 2015 Edition
privacytools.io – added 14 Oct 2016
As a general recommendation, the Australian Privacy Foundation suggests users wishing to avoid indiscriminate mass surveillance consider using off-shore providers for both email and VPN services. However, you need to also consider whether the provider's host-country has unreasonable laws. The US Administration claims excessive and inadequately controlled powers, and hence not only is hosting in the USA inadvisable, but so is hosting by any US company anywhere. However, when selecting any commercial service provider, individuals should consider their own threat model and manage their personal information security accordingly.
| Adam Molnar | Adam.Molnar@privacy.org.au | 0499 993 412 | @admmo |
| Angela Daly | Angela.Daly@privacy.org.au | (03) 9214 4420 | @nidhalaigh |
| Liam Pomfret | Liam.Pomfret@privacy.org.au | (07) 3346 8170 | @LiamPomfret |
| Roger Clarke | Roger.Clarke@privacy.org.au | (02) 6288 6916 |