OzLog: Unlimited Private Data Retention For Australia? 54
AHuxley writes "Australia would like to follow the EU down the 'European Directive on Data Retention' path. Law enforcement agencies may have the option to request a log of all a users of interest telco usage without any review or time limits. From the article: 'The proposal — known popularly as ‘OzLog’ — first came to light in June 2010, when AGD confirmed it had been examining the European Directive on Data Retention (PDF) to consider whether it would be beneficial for Australia to adopt a similar regime. The directive requires telcos to record data such as the source, destination and timing of all emails and telephone calls – even including internet telephony.'"
IF it can be done it will be done (Score:3)
And very often if there is even a small advantage to doing so. The plus side of having a national policy and laws is you can have some sort of a framework governing the use of the retained data. The downside is that most of these laws just encourage big brotherish behavior
Re:IF it can be done it will be done (Score:5, Insightful)
Why on Earth should my telephone calls (source and destination) be logged and retained indefinitely? A "framework governing the user of the data"? Are you crazy? Any national framework governing the use of the data is next to useless. Once the data are there (recorded) no "framework" will guarantee how the data are used in the future. If I want to telephone my mother there is NO REASON AT ALL to log this. Indeed, if I want to telephone my drug dealer (I actually don't use drugs, but it's an example), there is NO REASON AT ALL to log that either. There is no "positive" (as your comment suggests) to this stupid proposal.
Re:IF it can be done it will be done (Score:4, Insightful)
The solution is to "accidentally" dial the wrong number several times for every one time you dial the correct one. Eventually there will be enough complaints about the system and the data itself will be such complete worthless junk that they'll have to do something about it.
And by something I mean probably ban people from dialing the wrong number.
Re:IF it can be done it will be done (Score:4, Interesting)
These people have no idea at all. I have younger relatives who don't have an email address at all, preferring to do everything via social networks. Then there is of course Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo et al.
Then there are tools like this Track Me Not http://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/ [nyu.edu]. Tools like this will extend to every communications medium to flood records with junk connections, basically multiply by a factor of thousands the information to be stored.
Computers are great at filtering and correlating data, they are even better at creating junk data making any filtering and correlation impossible, GIGO.
Re:Junk Data (Score:3)
Sorry, I don't agree.
Precisely because computers are so good at data, a smart operator can bust the junk pattern and then filter it all out. The basic idea is that I-BigBro don't care about the sum total of your calls, I care about whether particular hotspots get hit at all. Put simply as an example, you can have 88,000 pages of data but the filter in Excel will sort it all up and a "known terrorist phone number" is there.
Wouldn't using a tool like TrackMeNot (Score:2)
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Are you that delusional (Score:3, Interesting)
You do NOT have a right to commit a crime and calling your drug dealer is NOT something that society wants you to get away with.
If society wanted people to be able to commit crimes, it wouldn't have created the police and spend billions on funding for it. It would simply have kept anarchy. The police instead have been given powers to track criminals down and this has always meant powers to track people and communication. Why should your phone logs NOT be available after a court order has been issued for the
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Tits up (Score:2, Funny)
Given that it's Australia, the data will be in an incompatible format, the people acessing it won't know what any of it means and the system that is supposedly gathering the data will be just making the shit up.
If you really want to know what we are up to just buy it from china.
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Given that it's Australia, the data will be in an incompatible format, the people acessing it won't know what any of it means and the system that is supposedly gathering the data will be just making the shit up.
If you really want to know what we are up to just buy it from china.
Yes, because Australia is a backwater nation that encodes all data in incompatible and undocumented formats of our own design. *rolls eyes*
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This does raise an important question: do eyes in Australia roll in the opposite direction from ours in the U.S.?
Re:Tits up (Score:4, Funny)
This does raise an important question: do eyes in Australia roll in the opposite direction from ours in the U.S.?
No, downhill, just like anywhere else.
You can run your own tests, the victims won't be able to identify you.
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Yes, because Australia is a backwater nation that encodes all data in incompatible and undocumented formats of our own design.
Actually, if you have ever tried to do anything in Australia regarding a log of phone calls or the like, it would seem that we do INDEED use incompatible and undocumented formats of our own design. This comes from many hours spent the phone with Telstra, Optus and worst of all Vodafone.
Oh, and by the way, I work for an Australian employer of over 200,000 employees. The data formats and accuracy that we have is utterly appalling. Even we can't read much of our data to any useful degree or match it with anyth
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Like in Europe, except... (Score:5, Informative)
That in Europe data retention is only for a finite amount of time, and can only be used to investigate major crimes, e.g., murder and terrorism (the real kind, not the US kind). Recent rulings by European courts confirm this (no IP addresses should be given to investigate copyright infringement).
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No, Kim DotCom is accused of criminal conduct in order to get around laws like this. Don't rely on civil law to protect you from big brother.
Re:Like in Europe, Schitzophrenia (Score:2)
With Europe's increadible laws protecting personal privacy of data, this seems to go in exactly the other direction. It's like there is us and them and we are the government and we know whats best, on one side and the other, no one should have your data, you should be protected (but not from us). These are hard philosophies to resolve together consistantly.
This will allow easy access to private information (Score:1)
So hang on ... (Score:2)
These guys are creating a network with waited relationships between us all.
If he is classified with a threat lever of 0.9 and my link to him is valued as 0.7 which is figured out by the frequency and timing of the emails and my relationships to other members he is related to that means I am a threat level of 0.63.
Bogus email accounts simply end up with very small threat levels although a bogus email account would carry some weight on account of the fac
EU Data Retention Directive (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, you mean the very same EU Data Retention Directive that has been condemned by the EU's own data protection authority [dw-world.de], slammed by legal experts [ejlt.org] and is currently under evaluation [europa.eu] within the European Commission and which, after being found in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights in Romania and staggeringly overpowered in Germany [eff.org], will probably be either restricted so severely it will not matter much anymore or, if enough political pressure can be built in time, completely taken back.
Yeah, looks like a winner to me to introduce into your country now.
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It is a winner if your goal is to fight a war on terror (U.S.). You appear to view spying as some kind of negative? The American government thinks Australia adopting Data retention is a wonderful policy.
BTW the EU is rapidly passing the ACTA. Apparently they don't care aboot privacy either.
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An attack on our freedoms (Score:2)
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Only hurt those at the bottom rung... (Score:4, Interesting)
This will affect those stupid enough to use their ISP's email address, and call on their normal landline or contract phone.
Others will use IRC channels, (occasionally) instant messaging, cycle through disposable or free web-mail accounts, use pre-paid no-contract mobiles using forged details, or just keep bribing those handling the data - just as they've done before.
In fact this really is just theatre with a few headlining arrests to come... (which will be arranged through the previous wiretaps, investigation, and existing lawful methods)
If you aren't ashamed of it... (Score:1)
Bush's fault. (Score:1)
As always. :-\