Regulator and lawmakers around the world are finally targeting organisations that use #darkpatterns to manipulate consumers into using products or services.

Chandni Gupta, Deputy CEO of the Consumer Policy Research Centre (and friend of EFA) has wrapped up some fantastic research on this issue. Chandni met with scores of regulators, enforcement agencies, consumer advocacy groups and choice architecture experts in the US, UK, Singapore and India about dark patterns and how they regulate them.

Case in point is Amazon's Project Iliad, a process designed to make it harder for customers to cancel their Prime membership. How? By making the process so needlessly complex that many users would give up and abandon the form.

Chandni writes that Australia is falling behind on protecting citizens from dark patterns. Legislating consumer potections against dark patterns is vital to protect us from manipulation of our behaviour and choices online.

Read the CPRC report: https://cprc.org.au/report/made-to-manipulate-report

#amazon #iliad #digitalrights

#eSafety is requesting feedback from the community and industry on its social media age restrictions regime. Amongst the feedback they are seeking they are looking for possible impacts on privacy and digital rights.

From a digital rights point of view, having more companies involved in age assurance and proliferation of online identification harms users for multiple reasons. We made a submission on this last year and do not support the regime. We intend to make a submission to eSafety representing our ongoing concerns.

What might a private age assurance regime look like, that has some semblance of concern for users' rights online? Perhaps something like Privacy Pass would be worth a look, an IETF-proposed web-capable standard for unlinkable authenticator tokens. Kagi is using this as an option for users to pay for access to its search engine whilst using the service anonymously. Social media operates under a much different model to search where users authenticate to a service and pull down a feed. A Privacy Pass token might allow a pseudonymous user to prove their age without creating a link to their identity.

https://privacypass.github.io/

Some pretty major downsides include significant complexity in implementing such a scheme including multiple independent parties, a requirement for involved users to use a browser plugin and would ultimately still require users to authenticate somewhere for the purposes of age assurance. It seems unlikely that many users would take up such a scheme, opting for a more convenient scan of an ID photo and/or selfies if such a method was offered.

What might a "less bad" age assurance regime look like? Having a lot of options for users to verify their age would be one. A failure could see users being locked out of their accounts. This is age assurance, not identification, and should be treated as such. Organisations that provide age assurance services should be restricted in what they can use the data for and how long it is retained.

Let us know your thoughts on age assurance and how it would impact privacy and digital rights online.

Where do the major parties sit on digital rights this election cycle? Check out the EFA Election Scorecard 2025.

We take a look at some key policies, including supporting reform on #privacy legislation and increased powers for the commissioner, #DigitalID, unnecessary identity verification, social media minimum age and the telco interception bill.

What else do you want to see from our elected representatives with regards to your rights in the digital space? Let us know in the comments.

https://efa.org.au/2025-federal-election-policy-scorecard/

#auspol #electronicfrontiersaustralia

Authorised by John Pane, EFA, Melbourne.

Whitewashing, greenwashing, pinkwashing, and now we're seeing #cyberwashing.

We're increasingly seeing corporations make bold, exaggerated and misleading claims around security and privacy.

Monash University has released a report saying a properly functioning legislative framework is the fix. Tranche II of the #Privacy Act reform package will help fix this issue.

Contact your MP and Senators and demand delivery of these much needed reforms.

https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Contacting_Senators_and_Members

#auspol #electronicfrontiersaustralia

A U.S. judge has overturned an Arkansas law that required #ageverification from all users for online safety citing restrictions on protected speech.

The law "was so vague it was unclear which social networks the law would cover". Sound familiar? The Online Safety Amendment in Australia is quite vague too, potentially applying to any service that allows communication between users. The Australian Communications Minister proposed a "sweetheart deal" for YouTube exempting it from the rules (perhaps YouTube and Google already know enough about their users...)

What impact will such legislation have on the Fediverse? EFA would like to see a broad exemption for digital communities that are not profit-based to avoid any chilling effects on Australian communities and operators, among other exemptions and wider concerns with regards to the legislation.

Australia does not have protected speech like the U.S. does, but we can draw on experiences from other countries and pay attention to both safety and human rights concerns.

https://gizmodo.com/arkansas-judge-kills-social-media-age-verification-law-says-it-violates-the-first-amendment-2000583628

#privacy #esafety #electronicfrontiersaustralia

The rise of #bossware and workplace surveillance, in places where much of us spend a substantial amount of our time, is a growing concern and a complex issue that crosses both state and federal law.

There is a pressing need for clarity on legal and ethical aspects.

In the meantime, here are some things you can do:

1. Get to know the software. Research unfamiliar apps and browser extensions.

2. Understand the network. Company WiFi and VPNs can track your activity even on personal devices. Use a personal hotspot or a separate VPN service for personal tasks and communications.

3. As a rule of thumb, never trust work apps. Tools like Slack, Zoom, Google Workplace, and Microsoft Office track user activity and allow your employer to retrieve information, such as what meetings you attended and whether you had your camera or microphone on.

Finally, review workplace policies, ask the IT department directly, keep personal and work data separate, and check your state's workplace surveillance laws as they vary across Australia.

EFA is calling for urgent action on #AI safety after the government has paused its plans on mandatory AI regulatory guardrails.

AI safety and risk guardrails belong in law which benefits everyone by providing certainty to business and protecting the public.

https://efa.org.au/efa-calls-for-urgent-legislative-action-on-ai-safety-amidst-global-deregulation-trends/

#aisafety #auspol #electronicfrontiersaustralia