Is the Gillard Government really planning to force Australian ISPs to retain logs detailing individual Internet usage for several years?
It sounds too surreal to be true. Yet this latest push by a Government dragging Australia fast towards Orwellian hell has been a matter of public knowledge – and some debate – for a while. So far, official denials have not been convincing.
Mandatory Data Retention: 10% of the Government's plans are public
Rumours first surfaced months ago of secret meetings convened by the Attorney General’s Department, in which ISPs were consulted about ways to monitor internet usage.
In June, the story made headlines, at least in Australia’s IT media. The ripple of coverage began on June 11th with Ben Grubb’s article in Zdnet.com.au: Govt wants ISPs to record browsing history. There was a follow-up article in Zdnet by Renai LeMay a few days later: Govt denies it wants web history records. News Corps’ Brett Winterford was considerably more reassuring – see Call for calm over data retention talks – although it’s interesting to note an acerbic debate with Ben Grubb in comments below that article.
By the end of June, Liz Tay was reporting that the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts has been given a reference to investigate the adequacy of Australian online privacy protections: see Feds launch online privacy inquiry.
In similar fashion to the way the debate over Internet censorship (the ‘filter’) has unfolded, it’s the Greens who’ve led efforts in the Federal Parliament to open up the topic for public debate. Greens Senator Scott Ludlum has emerged once again as the leading parliamentary champion of online rights – this time in relation to privacy. He said in June:
“It is time the Parliament took a proper look at the degree to which the privacy of Australians online is being eroded by governments and corporations alike,” Ludlam said.
“Importantly, it’s [the inquiry] going to allow us to have a proper look at Government plans to compel ISPs to collect the web browsing history of all Australians, for purposes which are not at all clear.”
A general election has since been called. Presumably, the Senate Standing Committee’s inquiry will carry over into the next Parliament.
This potentially explosive story dropped out of the headlines again – until Ben Grubb got a reply a few days ago from the Government to a Freedom of Information request.
Having tried to obtain a copy of the top-secret document used in discussions with the IT industry via FoI, the Sydney Morning Herald received a document with no less than nine tenths of the content erased! (see No Minister: 90% of web snoop document censored to stop ‘premature unnecessary debate’)
The issue was discussed this morning on Channel 7 breakfast news (see the video below).
Colin Jacobs of Electronic Frontiers Australia and Seamas Byrne of Gizmodo.com.au both did an excellent job outlining privacy concerns about this mind-boggling case of authoritarian over-reach, in an Australia where civil liberties are fast becoming an endangered species.
