Australia Spying On Its Own

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Posted by timothy on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:42PM from the he-ain't-heavy-he's-big-brother dept.

AVIDLY INTERESTED writes: "Well well, the Australian government has been caught out spying on its own citizens, despite denying for years that they do this type of thing. This story at The Age shows that the Defence Signals Directorate listens to just about every bit of communications in Australia. The interesting thing about this story is the background to it. In this case the govt spied because they were trying to win an election, and needed evidence to demonise a ship that was docking in Australia carrying a bunch of refugees. National security be damned, this is echelon for political gain. Is it happening anywhere else?"

8 of 403 comments (clear)

Re:"Is it happening anywhere else" by Klerck · 2002-02-11 21:49 · Score: 0, Funny

Good one, terrorist.I'd suggest you destroy all documents pertaining to any planned revolutions since I just reported you to the FBI.
More info... by arsaspe · 2002-02-11 22:06 · Score: 5, Funny

can be found here

personally, I think that spying on citizens is like masturbation. Everyone does it, no one admits it, and in the end it gets you nowhere.
So? Just Stop Communicating by guttentag · 2002-02-11 22:27 · Score: 5, Funny

...the Defence Signals Directorate listens to just about every bit of communications in Australia
Geez, every time some government does something like this we run around screaming about restrictions on our freedom. No one's restricting your freedom -- you still have to freedom to not communicate. I mean, that's what I do... aside from Slashdot, that is. I just got tired of all the PGP, SSL, and Cocoa Crunchies Decoder Wheels and stopped communicating altogether. Problem solved.
No one's forcing you to communicate with other people, just like no one's forcing you to use Windows...
(If you can't detect the sarcasm in the above statements, you really shouldn't be roaming the Web without a guardian)
Re:Maybe Its Pointless by ReluctantBadger · 2002-02-11 22:27 · Score: 0, Funny

"The only kind of data they are going to intercept is some guy having an affair with his wife..." Erm, what?
Downer == Shaved Monkey by McCarrum · 2002-02-11 23:03 · Score: 2, Funny

I love the statement our foreign minister Downer said in a press conference, "... there has been no SIGNIFICANT breech of protocol ..."

Oh, and I apologise to the shaved monkeys.

--
Robert Anton Wilson :: Rest in Slack
Re:Uh, shouldn't it be "where isn't it happening"? by fr2ty · 2002-02-12 03:02 · Score: 2, Funny

"Moral of the story: If you live in the UK, don't bother
encrypting either. They'll just get their grubby hands on it
if they want to."

Or generate a keypair, send an encrypted
email to your best enemy, wipe the keypair and call
the police that your best enemy is a terrorist.
Ooooops.

In fact, this could be a way to jail mutually everyone.

Remark: Don't jail me, I was joking!

--
live dream
Re:I'm an Australian, and I don't mind... by luciensims · 2002-02-12 03:11 · Score: 3, Funny

Congratulations, you fit the profile for almost every negative Australian stereotype out there. Get violently drunk off your ass and you'll be the perfect poster boy for everything the world thinks is wrong with your country.

what a fucking jerk. people like you perpetuate stereotypes.

as an australian who lived more than half his life in the US, i feel qualified to comment on this one... in my experience, americans know little or nothing of australia. maybe that's changed since the olympics, but i don't expect so.

americans tend to either categorise australians as sheep-fuckers, because they can't tell the difference between an australian and a new zealander :) , or they marvel at our ability to speak as adults at work without fear of litigation. they might even mention something about the fact that we tend to swear more, but i'm not sure i agree with that.

cunt.
Re:Very good! by Paradise+Pete · 2002-02-12 05:24 · Score: 3, Funny

is in the order of 135 years ahead of current public technology

Anytime you hear some specific "fact" like 135 years ahead your baloney detector should go off. It sounds good, but what does it mean? Did a couple of Smart Guys looked at all this "top secret" technology and had a conversation like this?:

Smart Guy #1: Wow - look at this technology! It's really advanced.

Smart Guy #2: Yeah, It's like 150 years ahead of current technology!

#1: Yup... Hang on - look at this scoogily-boog; it doesn't have a mobius flange. I'd say this is more like 125 years ahead.

#2: Good point. It does have an inverted reverser, though. I'd say that makes it about 135 years ahead.

#1: OK then. Lunch?