The Abbott Government’s metadata legislation to require telecommunications companies to store detailed information about the calls and internet use of its customers for two years has been slammed by a cross-party federal committee, which believe that it will place unreasonable limitations on human rights. From The Guardian:
Among its concerns, the joint parliamentary committee on human rights raised a warning about the length of time material could be kept, questioned how the information could be used, and criticised the lack of definition about what constitutes a reason for data to be kept.
The report said: “While the committee acknowledges that the prevention and detection of crime may be regarded as a legitimate objective for human rights purposes, the committee is of the view that … the proposed limitation is not proportionate to the stated aims of the proposed scheme”…
The committee’s report called for amendments to the legislation to inform individuals when an application to access their data has been made, except for investigations of serious crimes. It also wants targeted individuals to be able to “challenge” that access.
Access to data retained should be granted “only on the basis of a warrant approved by a court or independent administrative tribunal”, a change that would also require a rewrite of part the data retention bill…
Regular readers will know that I strongly oppose the Government’s data retention plan, which I believe would unnecessarily impede upon users’ freedom, would be overly expensive to set-up and administer, and would be largely ineffective.
The cost of the scheme, estimated at $700 million to design and build the systems to support the scheme plus a further $100m a year to run, will fall on taxpayers either through increased internet subscription costs or via their taxes.
The plan is also likely to be ineffective, unfairly targeting the 99% of law abiding citizens while the so-called real targets – terrorists and crooks – slip past the net. Anyone with a basic understanding of the internet knows that a “virtual private network” (VPN) can be set up in about 20 minutes, thereby evading the metadata net. With the click of a mouse, one can connect to a VPN server in another country and avoid Australian restrictions and surveillance.
So why bother with metadata, when all the Government’s data retention plan will do is force-up everyone’s internet costs or taxes and reduce civil liberties, while the intended perpetrators continue unimpeded?
