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Posts: 27156
Mar 29 15 10:56 PM
The story of your life in metadata relates where you went, who you spoke with, how long you were there for. And now that story will be kept on file The story of your life in metadata is an open book. It paints a picture of where you went, who you spoke with, how long you were there for. What were you doing talking on the phone to the sexually transmitted infections clinic? What were you doing on the street corner where the man was murdered last night? Privacy, at its most basic level, is about the right of citizens to be let alone by their governments. At the heart of what is happening right now in Australia is a debate around this very idea. And as the federal government succeeded in passing its data retention laws on Thursday, it is an idea that is being challenged more than it ever has before. The government’s new law is fairly simple. The bill initially only came to 47 pages of amendments. But it is exceedingly vague and has enormous potential for expansion. What it does is force certain types of telecommunication companies to store certain types of communications data known as “metadata”. This is information about who you called, or emailed, where you were at the time, what kind of device you were using and how you connected to the internet. It spans all phone and web technology. This type of telecommunications data has always been accessible without a warrant. But data retention will vastly increase the reach of enforcement agencies into our personal lives, by creating a much larger set of data from which to draw. The privacy issues at the core of this debate are numerous. The key ones include: whether it is reasonable to collect this data on all citizens for two years, whether it is reasonable to make this data accessible without a warrant, and whether - if it is stored – it will be done securely.
The story of your life in metadata relates where you went, who you spoke with, how long you were there for. And now that story will be kept on file
The story of your life in metadata is an open book. It paints a picture of where you went, who you spoke with, how long you were there for. What were you doing talking on the phone to the sexually transmitted infections clinic? What were you doing on the street corner where the man was murdered last night?
Privacy, at its most basic level, is about the right of citizens to be let alone by their governments. At the heart of what is happening right now in Australia is a debate around this very idea. And as the federal government succeeded in passing its data retention laws on Thursday, it is an idea that is being challenged more than it ever has before.
The government’s new law is fairly simple. The bill initially only came to 47 pages of amendments. But it is exceedingly vague and has enormous potential for expansion.
What it does is force certain types of telecommunication companies to store certain types of communications data known as “metadata”. This is information about who you called, or emailed, where you were at the time, what kind of device you were using and how you connected to the internet. It spans all phone and web technology.
This type of telecommunications data has always been accessible without a warrant. But data retention will vastly increase the reach of enforcement agencies into our personal lives, by creating a much larger set of data from which to draw.
The privacy issues at the core of this debate are numerous. The key ones include: whether it is reasonable to collect this data on all citizens for two years, whether it is reasonable to make this data accessible without a warrant, and whether - if it is stored – it will be done securely.
The Coalition's controversial data retention legislation has sailed through the parliament with a minimum of fuss. An entirely predictable outcome after the Labor opposition made a largely perfunctory attempt to bring more rigour into the regime. As far as the opposition is concerned, it has done its job. After all Labor leader Bill Shorten has managed to eke out a concession or two out of Tony Abbott and the combined 38 amendments made to the legislation has substantially improved the bill. That's Labor's line anyway. For the telecommunications industry, there’s little time to reflect on its futile attempts to get any clarity from the Abbott government. The Data Retention Bill has been passed. The issue of just how much the government will contribute to the cost remains unresolved, and telcos have less than two years to to develop systems to store customer call records, assigned IP addresses, billing information, location data, and other personal information. A task that promises to be just as arduous, if not more, than trying to stop the politicians in Canberra to placate the demands of the security agencies.
The Coalition's controversial data retention legislation has sailed through the parliament with a minimum of fuss. An entirely predictable outcome after the Labor opposition made a largely perfunctory attempt to bring more rigour into the regime.
As far as the opposition is concerned, it has done its job. After all Labor leader Bill Shorten has managed to eke out a concession or two out of Tony Abbott and the combined 38 amendments made to the legislation has substantially improved the bill. That's Labor's line anyway. For the telecommunications industry, there’s little time to reflect on its futile attempts to get any clarity from the Abbott government.
The Data Retention Bill has been passed. The issue of just how much the government will contribute to the cost remains unresolved, and telcos have less than two years to to develop systems to store customer call records, assigned IP addresses, billing information, location data, and other personal information.
A task that promises to be just as arduous, if not more, than trying to stop the politicians in Canberra to placate the demands of the security agencies.
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
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