Police State goes Digital
On paper it’s called the Data-Retention Scheme, but online its known as #ozlog. The Federal Government’s controversial plan to force Australian telcos and ISPs to keep records of their customers’ communications, web searches and browser histories. In simple terms, mass surveillance of everyone in Australia that uses a phone, or the Internet.
Brainchild of the Attorney-General’s Department, the scheme has been greeted with criticism from civil liberty groups who claim it is an attack on individual privacy. It has also been flagged by industry groups, who call the plan financially unfeasible, and argue that its implementation would be pointless.
Despite these accusations, the Attorney-General’s Department is playing hardball, refusing to discuss the scheme in detail on the public record. In July this year the Sydney Morning Herald obtained an 18 page proposal for the scheme, under a Freedom of Information request, only to discover that 90% of the document had been blacked out.
Recently, representatives from the Attorney-Gerneral’s Department were brought before a Senate Inquiry into online privacy protection and data collection, and questioned about the scheme.
Greens Senator, Scott Ludlum, one of those present during the inquiry was not impressed. “I’m troubled by the Attorney-General Department’s lack of engagement with civil society groups and privacy advocates during the data retention consultation process.” he told City Hub “If the Department doesn’t trust us to tell us what it is they are doing, why should we trust them to have all this data in the first place?”
In Europe, a similar scheme has already been declared unconstitutional in a German court, with a swarm of legal challenges underway in other EU member countries.
Back home, Colin Jacobs, a spokesperson for Electronic Frontiers Australia, a group who lobby to protect users online freedoms and rights, argued passionately against the data-retention scheme during the inquiry.
“We’re concerned that what the Attorney-General’s Department is proposing is unnecessary, and a huge violation of Australians right to privacy” he told City Hub “The assumption should be that our communications are private, unless there’s a very good reason they shouldn’t be”
“Even if you think you’ll never be investigated for criminal activity, once this database is compiled there’s always the risk that it will be abused, or that hackers will get a hold of it”
When approached for comment the Attorney-General’s Department told City Hub that no decisions have been made in relation to the implementation of a data retention regime in Australia.
by Kieran Adair
BREAKOUT BOX
What we know: The Australian Federal Police, are reportedly behind the proposal pressuring the Office of the Attorney-General, and other Government Agencies to legislate the scheme. The Office of the Attorney-General is currently in talks with the telecommunications industry trying to figure out what is feasible, or as one insider put it “figuring out what they can get away with”. The scheme would force telco’s to keep logs of communications, such as phone calls, sms’s, and potentially browser histories of all their customers. These will then be given to police during criminal investigations. Ironically, it will be those with little to hide who’s private data fills these logs, as sophisticated criminals can use relatively simple hacks to circumvent Government monitoring.
