[LINK] Inquiry to examine Australian internet, phone surveillance

[Paul Brooks]

On 13/12/2013 3:10 PM, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> Sigh ..
>
> "Warrantless Aussie surveillance requests were nearly 300,000 last year"
>
> For 20 million of us that's *one person in every 66 spied on* and without
> a warrant. One in 66 equals six Linkers. What a bunch of privacy perverts.

Warrantless requests are requests for data, such as call records, who called who, name
and street address that belong to telephone numbers etc. It would include things like
when police get a missing persons report or a hiker goes missing, checking their
mobile phone records and then trying to obtain the name and street address of the last
20 people to find out if they've seen the person since they went missing, and the
locations of towers the missing person was connected to recently to get a rough idea
of location to go searching.
Also attempts to use connection logs from seized servers to try to track each source
IP address back to the ISP to find the other users of the service.
One of these incidents might result in several tens or hundreds of information
requests, so I don't think a lot can be read into the quantum of the number. 

As far as I know these requests don't include phone call taps, anyone listening in to
conversations or recordings of call data. These should need a warrant.

We can certainly argue about how many is too many, and drill down to what they were
for - but personally, I'm happy that some requests for information can be warrantless.
If I've fallen down a ravine, I'd like to know the rescue authorities can ask the
phone providers for my last rough location, and do it without a warrant so it has a
chance of happening before the phone battery runs out, or I die from exposure.

Paul.

>
>
> Inquiry to Examine Australian Internet, Phone Surveillance
>
> By Ben Grubb December 13, 2013 
> <http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/inquiry-to-examine-australian-
> internet-phone-surveillance-20131212-hv5j8.html>
>
>
> A Senate committee will examine internet and telephone surveillance by law 
> enforcement and security agencies after Labor backed a Greens motion for an 
> inquiry on Thursday.
>
> The motion was passed after several recent unsuccessful attempts to launch 
> similar inquiries. 
>
> It was not supported by the government.
>
> Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam said the inquiry would break 
> "the complicity of silence about surveillance in Australia".
>
> It would also open up an opportunity for Australian experts, agencies and 
> individuals to participate in "a conversation of what surveillance is 
> necessary and proportionate".
>
> The committee will be charged with a comprehensive review of the 
> Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 in reference to 
> recommendations of a 2008 report conducted by the Australian Law Reform 
> Commission titled "For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and 
> Practice". Ref: <http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/report-108>
>
> It will also examine recommendations from a report tabled earlier this year 
> by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. That 
> inquiry was tasked with examining more than 40 potential reforms of 
> Australia's national security legislation. 
>
> Ref<http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_repres
> entatives_committees?url=pjcis/nsl2012/report.htm>
>
> "A review of the deeply flawed Telecommunications (Interception and Access) 
> Act is well overdue," Senator Ludlam said.
>
> "Amended no less than 45 times since the events of 11 September 2001, it is 
> the tool used to bug and snoop on Australians."
>
> Senator Ludlam noted that since 2007, warrantless surveillance of 
> Australians through access to telecommunications data has been possible, 
> with requests of nearly 300,000 in the past financial year.
>
> Ref: <http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/access-to-private-
> net-phone-use-up-by-20--without-warrants-20121130-2amwp.html>
>
> "Since the revelations of Edward Snowden, the Senate has repeatedly voted 
> to avoid knowing what is going on until today, failing in its primary duty 
> as a parliament."
>
> Cheers,
> Stephen
>
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>
>
>
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