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Aussie Gov't Says Wiretap Laws Fine, Telcos 'Wrong'
mask.of.sanity writes "A top bureaucrat from the Australian Attorney-General's department has said telcos are wrong to complain about changes to the country's wiretapping laws, which will force them to report every product and network system change to law enforcement for approval, lest they affect the ability to intercept communications. The telcos argue there are simply too many products and network architecture changes to report and that it would become overbearing. It's the latest in a string of changes to communications law in the country, and comes as the government mulls data retention and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement."
Soft tyranny -- it's for your protection!
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
If forced to store conversations, transcribe them into a paper format, print them out, delete the digital copies, and keep a large paper archival system, for the government's perusal. Then use the cost of that as a tax writeoff.
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
Just so you know, the data retention and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement don't have anything to do with this particular bit of madness despite the misleading summary.
Yeah you change a tube here, a valve there - not much to report at all!
Dear government, we will now use purple wirenuts rather than buttsplices to join wires.
1 minute later: Dear government, we will not use off white butt splices rather than purple wirenuts to join wires
next minute: Dear government, we changed our minds again, back to the wirenuts.
30 seconds later: Dear government, in reference to the letter sent today 30 seconds ago, we should clarify that we DO mean the purple butt splices.
15 seconds later, Hi again! Sorry, we meant wirenuts, not butt splices!
Another minute passes: Dear government, to update and clarify, the use of a moose to crimp butt splices is now absolutely forbidden! While the moose is quite majestic, their import would violate several laws and besides, moose bites can be serious.
10 seconds later: Dear government, my sister was bitten by a moose once!
another minute: Dear government, telephone communication shall now be based on dixie cups and kite string!
30 seconds later: Dear government, the previous announce was obviously in error as it would violate our policy of maintaining a second source for all key components. Any brand of paper cup might be used. The person responsible for the last memo has been sacked.
Oh Hai again! Sorry, that last message regarding the previous unauthorized message was not, in fact, authorized. Those responsable for the sacking have been sacked!
Dear government: I just don't know what was up with the memo guy, it's nonsense! We could never use kite string and paper cups (of any brand) for key telecommunications infrastructure. Everyone knows you can't join kite string with purple butt splices!
Maybe report every single change in the network, apply for approval for every person moving their connection, for every new connection, for every cable repaired, for every minute change in their network. And make it very clear to the customer that to comply with the law they have to wait for the government to approve of the changes, as the government wants to make sure they can still listen in to your calls.
This should have a few effects: first of all completely overburdening the government approval system. Secondly causing delays all over even for simple routine operations, causing numerous complaints. Thirdly it makes the people very aware that their government wants to listen in to their phone calls - and that again should also give a serious outcry.
The last assuming people actually still care about their privacy. Not sure about that one.
But the overburdening and causing delays part should work well - especially when the members of the government themselves get stuck up in their own approval process and have a problem getting telephone lines moved or fixed.
This law sounds totally bullshit to me. I bet there are regulations in place already to require wiretapping facilities, that should be enough.
From TFA:
Australian Federal Police, ... noted that "there is nothing worse than to see criminals escape conviction because of technology"
Nothing worse? How about treating the populous like criminals even though they are innocent? If this doesn't qualify as worse to you, then you shouldn't be in law-enforcement or politics.
I just loathe the line of thinking exhibited by the police.
Cars are technology that help the vast majority of escaping criminals escape. Perhaps they all need tracking devices installed so that we know where everyone is going at all times.
Books convey technical information that may help a criminal escape. We should pass a law requiring all books read to be reported to the police as well.
Some rapists use condom technology to escape without leaving their DNA! Citizens should be required to keep a condom log detailing the time and date of each condom purchase and use.
Complimentary pirate party against ACTA. http://pirateparty.org.au/
There's some discussion to protest the next ACTA meeting in Sydney. It would be great to emphasise how shocking it is for ACTA discussion to be held behind doors when it affects everyone in Australia.
Please do post other options or suggestions against ACTA. I don't want this gross violation of democracy to occur.
I thought Australia was a penal colony anyway? So then they are all criminals, and therefore it is ok.
--jeffk++
ipv6 is my vpn
Technically, the U.S. isn't really going towards nanny state as that would imply an element of taking care of people rather than just watching them. It's more a Mommy Dearest state really.
Yeah.
And who took off all their gps ankle monitors? Last time I was there, nobody was wearing them, and I wasn't just wandering around in tourist-only areas...
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
"(Gubermint) Upgrade a router to a T1600? You want to do WHAT?"
Sorry, that's not on our list of approved $routers_whose_manufacturer_donated_the_most_to_our_campaign. You're going to have to use a Cisco 2600s for your core routing, just like all your competitors. In 5 or 6 years, we might let you upgrade to the ASR 1000, but the approval process is still in the early stages.
My country is going down the drain. I haven't been back in 2 and a half years, and the way things are going don't really want to.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
Because Telstra isn't competant enough to be able to keep track of the changes themselves and now they'll have to audit their own network.
It really comes down to staff levels, firing everyone with a clue and bringing some (nowhere near enough) of them back as contractors on restricted hours.
Telstra is the unholy thing you get when a government monopoly is told to go out there and make money any way it can. Maintainance costs money and keeping track of it even more so.
The only other real competition is from the Singapore government owned Optus (another weird abomination) but their landline network is very small.
Civil liberties are important but not to Telstra, and most definately not to Optus.
I think it is worse than that.
Your post implies that corruption would be the greatest interference in network operations at the ISP.
My experience in my own country shows that those that work for the government do so because they lacked the skills (on many levels) to work in the private sector.
In order for the government to approve the changes, they would need to first understand them. Increasing the operational costs of the both the ISPs and the government at the same time.
Who decides who is right in the event of a disagreement? The idiot in the government who could not cut it in the private sector, or the well paid network engineer in the ISP?
This makes all the ISPs only as smart as the IT personnel the government hires to evaluate the approval requests...... yeah...... that will work out great.
Australia should just quit the fucking foreplay and eliminate all private sector technology companies and go with state run everything. At least approval would go faster since it all in house anyways.
tbh i'd prefer to be a penal colony than founded by a bunch of puritans, but whatever floats your boat :)
This is a joke. I am joking. Joke joke joke.
The government is welcome to join our conference bridge for change meetings every Tuesday. It's a1 hour meeting where all changes are discussed.
Everyone dreads attending.