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AU Government Censors Document On Planned Web Snooping

Posted by kdawson on from the trust-us-on-the-other-ninety-percent dept.

MrPPS writes "The Australian Government plans to force ISPs to record and retain all citizens' communications traffic. The Sydney Morning Herald requested that the proposed policy documents be released under Freedom of Information laws. What they received was a document that was 90% censored, in order to prevent 'premature unnecessary debate.' More discussion on the Greyhat Security site. Here is the redacted document (PDF, 3.6 MB)."

6 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. 'premature unnecessary debate. by MRe_nl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    aka democracy.

    --
    "Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
  2. The ASP by Kojiro+Ganryu+Sasaki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only realistic vote in Australia seems to be a vote for the Australian Sex Party.

    The other parties seem totally infested by moralism and corruption.

    1. Re:The ASP by zuperduperman · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Australians have a very different attitude to government than Americans, and perhaps to some extent many other countries.

      By and large, they see the government as a service provider. It provides their health care, education (right through from elementary school through to university), postal service, once upon a time even the telephone network and power and water services. Basically, any exigent need that an Australian citizen feels is immediately reflected in their mind to the government as the first port of call as to who should fill it. The government is accutely attuned to this and doesn't hesitate to jump in and try to first exaggerate the need for and then propose some (usually token but sufficient to win votes) solution to the "problem". This, combined with the fact that Australia has been a peaceful democracy since inception (if you ignore Aborigines, but that is what Aussies do) has lead to an implicit trust of government that simply doesn't exist in the US.

      Now, don't get me wrong - Aussies hate the government - they are full of cynicism and basically assume that every politician is corrupt and every bureaucrat is incompetent. But they don't think they are evil. They would never even imagine that their government might persecute them or become their enemy in a war, etc. Even if they did, the government is so institutionalized in normal people's lives that it is basically pointless to worry about it. The American viewpoint seems a little bit ludicrous to most Australians - really, you want to hold onto your guns and absolute rights to free speech just in case you want to overthrow your entire government one day - like that is actually going to happen? You, with your pop gun are going to take on your nuclear armed government?

      So when the government says they want to censor or monitor the internet, most people see it no differently to if your ISP announced that as a new extra feature to protect them. You pay for virus checkers and filters on your home computer, now the government is going to do that for free - awesome! It sounds like a good idea (catch more criminals, protect children etc) and due to implicit trust they have they don't really pursue it to question whether evil things might be done as a result, and even if they do it seems like a very theoretical, abstract concept.

  3. Well, at least it's not for national security, eh? by Mathinker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To prevent "premature unnecessary debate" --- gotta give them credit that at least they're not lying about their motivations, unlike using "national security" to keep ACTA negotiations secret.

  4. AILARTSUA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    In Soviet Australia, every Party except the Sex Party wants to Fuck you.

  5. Re:Vote Tweedledum or Tweeledee by heathen_01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Insightful? There are more than 2 choices.