[LINK] Inquiry to examine Australian internet,

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Jan writes,
 
> I reckon emergency use .. is something that could be stipulated
> in the legislation and could be allowed through a senior police
> officer, possibly superintendent level who takes responsibility
> for the action ..


Yes Jan. Such transparent data-operational-procedures are essential.

And thanks for your information Paul. It makes 'warrantless requests' 
more understandable. However apparently right now, the RSPCA and even
the Taxi industry can and do make such requests for names and records.

And, this for 'crimes' that apparently may simply only involve a fine.

<www.theglobalmail.org/feature/australias-real-surveillance-scandal/777>

"The Australia’s Telecommunications Act place an obligation on telecomms
providers to hand over citizen information on laws that "impose pecuniary 
penalties" or, for "assisting a foreign country" even for "protecting the 
revenue".

The extent of use of these powers is surprising. And no less than 40
government agencies made 293,501 warrantless requests for metadata from
internet service providers in the 2011-12 financial year. Just 56,898 of
those requests were made by the Federal Police. Centrelink agents, The
RSPCA, Wyndham City Council, the Tax Practitioners Board and even the
Victorian Taxi Directorate have also been allowed to access individual
telecommunications data for a ‘law-enforcement purpose’." (end quote)

So, with zero transparency, the taxi industry receives your information.

And, of course, really secret stuff doesn't even get sent as an email ..

Quote, "I go to a Hotmail / Gmail address which is completely anonymous.
Essentially I create a login for an email address. Neither party sends
email from that email address. All they’re doing is creating an email
and saving it as a draft inside Hotmail or Gmail. I give him the login,
I have the login, and we correspond using an online email address that
we never send from." (end quote)

This individual privacy situation is just not good enough for Australia.

Cheers,
Stephen
 



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