News and Research articles on Australia

Geopolitics, jurisdiction and surveillance

Monique Mann, Deakin University
Angela Daly, University of Strathclyde
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1501

The internet is a forum for geopolitical struggle as states wield power beyond their terrestrial territorial borders through the extraterritorial geographies of data flows. This exertion of power across multiple jurisdictions, and via the infrastructure of transnational technology companies, creates new challenges for traditional forms of regulatory governance and the protection of human rights.

Regulatory arbitrage and transnational surveillance: Australia’s extraterritorial assistance to access encrypted communications

Monique Mann, Deakin University
Angela Daly, University of Strathclyde
Adam Molnar, University of Waterloo
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1499

This paper is part of Geopolitics, jurisdiction and surveillance, a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by Monique Mann and Angela Daly. Introduction Since the Snowden revelations in 2013 (see e.g., Lyon, 2014; Lyon, 2015) an ongoing policy issue has been the legitimate scope of surveillance, and the extent to which individuals and groups can assert their fundamental rights, including privacy. There has been a renewed focus on policies regarding access to encrypted communications, which are part of a longer history of the ‘cryptowars’ of the 1990s (see e.g., Koops, 1999). We examine these provisions in the Anglophone ‘Five Eyes’ (FVEY) The FVEY partnership is a comprehensive …

Anchoring the need to revise cross-border access to e-evidence

Sergi Vazquez Maymir, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1495

The percentages and figures used in the impact assessment accompanying the European Commission’s e-evidence package strongly influence the analysis of the problem and limit the assessment of the problem of cross-border access to e-evidence to technical and efficiency considerations.

Citizen or consumer? Contrasting Australia and Europe’s data protection policies

James Meese, University of Technology Sydney
Punit Jagasia, University of Technology Sydney
James Arvanitakis, Western Sydney University
PUBLISHED ON: 30 Jun 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.2.1409

This paper examines data protection policies in Australia and Europe and outlines how both frameworks evoke different notions of citizenship.

Data and digital rights: recent Australian developments

Gerard Goggin, University of Sydney
Ariadne Vromen, University of Sydney
Kimberlee Weatherall, University of Sydney
Fiona Martin, University of Sydney
Lucy Sunman, University of Sydney
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.1.1390

How do we construct and deliver data privacy rights? We discuss two recent Australian initiatives on regulation of digital platforms and a new consumer data right.

There is an increase in the Orwellian nature of schemes and programmes being launched in India, in spite of the absence of concrete privacy and data protection laws. While a major step towards mass surveillance was taken a few years ago in the form of “Aadhaar”, the central and state governments have subsequently adopted schemes which involve collection and processing of voluminous amounts of data.

Bitcoin: a regulatory nightmare to a libertarian dream

Primavera De Filippi, Research and Studies Center of Administrative Science (CERSA/CNRS), Université Paris II (Panthéon-Assas)
PUBLISHED ON: 23 May 2014 DOI: 10.14763/2014.2.286

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are often seen as a threat by governmental and financial institutions worldwide. Regulation could help minimise the risks involved. The author explores some legal and self-regulatory precedents from which we can learn.

Enforcement vs. access: wrestling with intellectual property on the internet

Sebastian Haunss, University of Bremen
PUBLISHED ON: 3 Jun 2013 DOI: 10.14763/2013.2.132

The last years have seen a growing politicisation of intellectual property issues, especially those relative to the internet. Sebastian Haunss assesses the current state of the policy field and draws attention to three parallel processes, which structure the future development of intellectual property policies related to the internet: the growing focus on enforcement, the plurilateralisation of international IP policies, and the trend to open access.