Document Shows Government Plans To Snoop On Internet Access
July 23, 1 Comment - Author: Simon JohnsonThe Australian government has censored approximately 90% of a secret document outlining its controversial plans to snoop on Australians’ web surfing.
Obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald under Freedom of Information, the document was heavily censored due to the possibility of “premature and unnecessary debate“.
On a personal note; given that I cofounded one of Australias first ISPs and literally “wrote the book” on Internet safety, I feel an obligation to speak out about such measures.
I’ve made a copy of the document available here: Secret-Document.pdf and a letter from the Australian government (on the reason for censoring it) available here: Decision_Letter.pdf
While the Attorney-General’s Legal Department has redacted (blacked out) large portions of the document, it does mention retaining data in a dataset.
If you combine that with the Appendix, it gives us some insight into what is going on. Definitions such as ADSL, IMEI (a unique number for your mobile telephone itself), SIP (a VOIP standard), VOIP, VPN and Wi-Fi jump out at you.
Given that we are having an election next month, I’m sure the media will jump all over this. Feel free to check out the document and draw your own conclusions.
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Sound’s like “The Patriot Act 2″ While I usually worry about emerging countries and investing in domains from those countries I see again and again, our rights in these “developed” countries slowly being chipped away under the guise of “we are protecting you from the bogey man”. “Sheep”, I mean people need to stand up and stop governments from turning our countries into police states. I wonder if they are doing any “traffic shaping” in Australia? I know in Canada and the US large internet providers are “dialing down” internet speeds and information to make you pay more and keep the lines open for their own private interests. We get the “pigeon sh*t” services that are left over.
Good article.
Best.