Creeping Government Surveillance Now Without Warrants 78
CuteSteveJobs writes "The Age reports on creeping Australian government surveillance, beginning with the first operation launched on a baseless rumor. Six decades later the still-unaware victim read five months of transcripts with deep distress. Two decades ago few Australians would have consented to carrying a government-accessible tracking device, but phone and tablet data accessible without a warrant includes historic and real-time location data. In 2010-2011 there were 250,000 warrantless accesses by Federal agencies including ASIO, AFP, the Tax Office, Defence, Immigration, Citizenship, Health, Ageing, and Medicare. This is 18 times the rate of similar requests in the U.S."
Re:I'm guessing the US hides the request better. (Score:5, Interesting)
I seriously doubt we're actually being snooped on any less. When the watching is constant by certain agencies it no longer shows up as a separate look.
Nope, this is a standard media beat up of the current govt. Not based in reality, uses vauge statistics in deliberately misleading manner.
Technically, when a car dealer checks my credit file when I apply for finance, they are performing a warrentless check of private data... despite the fact I've given them permission. I love the fact the Age does not differentiate between
and
A hell of a lot of those checks will be done by the ATO (Australian Tax Office) as investigations against tax cheats. Your bank records are protected by law.
But by all means, let the Australia bashing continue.
Re:I'm guessing the US hides the request better. (Score:3, Interesting)
Technically, when a car dealer checks my credit file when I apply for finance, they are performing a warrentless check of private data... despite the fact I've given them permission.
Certainly, but I'm pretty sure that isn't going to count in the above lists (not being ASIO, the ATO, or any of the others) so that isn't really relevant.
I love the fact the Age does not differentiate between
and
You know, I think that whichever of those agencies is accessing my phone, internet, or location records, it is not innocuous. (Note, from the article it is hard to make out who is obtaining what data).
Frankly, I think that the law should be such that all of this data is not available without a warrant, and that those organisations should be forced to put forward a good case for why it is otherwise. Furthermore, I think that if this data is accessed (or a wiretap is performed) then after a period of time (3 months? 6 maybe?) the relevant agency should be required to notify me that the data was accessed, unless either the investigation is ongoing, or they are in the process of pressing charges. If my call listing is accessed, and no action against me follows, then why shouldn't I know it was accessed?
Re:fuck the government (Score:4, Interesting)
I despise them too. We really deserve what we are getting.
This country is utterly doomed. Utterly and completely doomed.
I did a stint at DSD and while I cannot talk about what I saw there specifically, I can tell you that every single one of your absolute nightmares is absolutely true. Double up on the paranoia, the data collection and the cross indexing, then multiply this by six and you might get close.
Regard every single system that has an electron running through it used to monitor you and you would be getting close.
Re:I'm guessing the US hides the request better. (Score:4, Interesting)
... those organisations should be forced to put forward a good case for why it is otherwise.
Context is everything...
Case 1. A woman went missing here in Melbourne on the weekend, cops had a great deal of information on her very quickly simply by asking, for a start they know she hasn't used her bank accounts or her mobile phone since she dissappeared, they also know from public CCTV footage that she got within 450 meters of her home before dissapearing, and that's only the evidence they are telling us about, they probably know quite a bit more.
Now lets change the context...
Case 2. There is a guy who is currently on terrorist charges because he was caught downloding "terrorist documents", ironically newspapers and blogs have condemend him by reprinting the worst bits of those documents, "in the public interest" of course. They also seem to think that making bombs with household chemicals is some sort of classified information and not just simple HS chemistry.
Believe it or not, the vast majority of cases that find their way into court are much closer to case 1 than they are to case 2.