[LINK] Australian Privacy Foundation's 'easy option'?

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Tony forwards:
 
>> Subject: ACMA introduces new number range for innovative  
>> communications services such as VoIP
>>
>> ... new location-independent service type, and number range, to  
>> facilitate the introduction of innovative communications services ..
>> <http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD//pc=PC_310162>

Hmm .. maybe these two items, above and below, are related? Does anyone 
know what the Australian Privacy Foundation's 'easy option' might entail?

Net Voice Haunts Spooks
Chris Jenkins APRIL 24, 2007  
<http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21609052%5E15319%5E%
5Enbv%5E,00.html>

. Spooks and police these days have to deal with almost untraceable Skype
calls made from mobile phones using mobile data networks using handsets
such the Hutchison X series. 

The proliferation of carriers and services and the advent of easily
available encryption means the days of the humble phone tap have passed,
IT security expert and Queensland University of Technology faculty of
information technology associate dean Bill Caelli said. 

"The biggest challenge right now for law enforcement is the legal and
practical challenge of convergence," Professor Caelli said. "It's a hot
topic. .. What do you do about VoIP, about Skype and all those sorts of
things?" 

IP networks don't readily lend themselves to interception or even
emergency calls services, said the Australian Privacy Foundation's Nigel
Waters. 

"There are some questions as to whether technically the VoIP carriers are
able to provide the law enforcement agencies with the interception
capability that they require. There are ongoing discussions about whether
they can deliver," he said. 

More and more communications services are being encrypted as a matter of
course and transmitted over privately owned networks. This encryption is
forcing agencies to use less capable and easily discoverable means of
eavesdropping on suspects, such as bugging a room, Professor Caelli said. 

The arrival of IP has thrown up law enforcement issues that simply didn't
exist in the era of government-owned phone companies offering simple
services from within the exchange. 

For example, a company using a VPN may conduct encryption using its own
equipment on its own premises, for information to be transmitted via its
own network, Professor Caelli said. 

"The dimensions that you're running into are not just technical. They're
legal and they have to do with ownership and with point of interception,"
he said. 

"How would interception work in a VPN environment where everyone is
connected to what is essentially a telephone exchange owned by the 
company? 

"Once you move across to a TCP/IP world, how do you separate out the
services?" 

The arrival of new communications was also challenging the safeguards
that govern the way telecommunications were intercepted, the APF's Mr
Waters said. 

"The temptation for governments is to say this is all too difficult and
to take the easy option, and this results in an overall diminution of
privacy," he said.  The Australian 
--

Cheers all ..
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia