[LINK] Government could demand Web history

[Jan Whitaker]

At 07:29 AM 13/06/2010, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>I would criticise Dylan Welch for jumping off the edge of Telegraph
>Gorge on this story - except that everyone else seems to be doing the
>same thing. The extent of the proposed storage is a central fact of the
>story, and nobo^h^h^h^h nearly nobody seems to care whether they report
>it right or not.

I'm thinking the reason for the speculation is because of other 
stupid things the government (of any persuasion) has done in the past 
10 years. They say one thing at one time to get their nose under the 
tent, then they move in. That's what's happened with the filter. 
That's what's happened with the eHealth programs (state and federal). 
That's what's happened with AUSTRAC data access (did you know 
Centrelink and Child Support Payment services now have access to 
AUSTRAC data?). And many of those changes don't hit the papers 
because they are regulation changes. I'm sure we all have our own 
examples from the areas we try to keep on top of.

If government had a positive track record, they might be trusted when 
'speakers for the xxx minister' say things. But too often those 
speakers either don't know the full plan or are sent out to say 
things that can then be denied by the Minister.

I believe stories like this are somewhat helpful to raise concerns 
about what may be at risk to the public before the government goes 
off the rails entirely. Risk management is something that businesses 
do, but the public hasn't cottoned onto yet. By pointing out what 
could be done with the initiation of a policy or law, like requiring 
IPSs to store anything that is done on their networks, the debate can 
go that extra step and examine what future possibilities are being 
set up. In this instance, the word 'could' is a very important word. 
It doesn't matter if they intend (at the moment) or say "never ever". 
There are too many examples of that being, in the words of a certain 
PM, bunkum.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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