Australia Taps More Phones Than Entire U.S.

An anonymous reader writes "Last year Australian authorities tapped more phones all United States authorities combined. Australian phones were tapped at 20 times the rate of phones in the US according to this article in the Sydney Morning herald. The fact was revealed during a debate in the Australian parliament. The government is attempting to pass new legislation to to make it even easier for the country's domestic spy agency ASIO to tap phones." Update: 09/16 14:07 GMT by T : Julian Assange writes "The Australian is also running the story and has better stats." Thanks for the link.

Comments

Big deal

[Basje]

I live in the Netherlands (pop 15 million, about as much as NYC) and the police over here taps more phones than the whole of the US.

It's not as much the phone taps that are in place that worry me. It's the taps that should be there and that are prevented by corrupt officials.

Land of the free. Yeah sure, but only when you've bought your local politician/whatever.