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ASIC Seeks Power To Read Your Emails

nemesisrocks writes "ASIC, Australia's version of the SEC, has called for phone call and internet data to be stored by Australian ISPs, in a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into mandatory data retention. Not only does the authority want the powers to intercept the times, dates and details of telecommunications information, it also wants access to the contents of emails, social media chats and text messages."

14 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Inquity ? by ByteSlicer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's most probably a typo of the word "Inquiry". The keys R and T are adjacent on q qwerty keyboard...

  2. It's Psychostory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    According to Harry Seldon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Seldon), if a people begins as a prison colony it must necessarily end up as a police state. It's inevitable.

    1. Re:It's Psychostory by Cimexus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Funny how Australia gets the rap as being a prison colony, when in fact one of the key reasons for it being so was because, post-1776, they couldn't send prisoners to the American colonies anymore. The two countries have a more similar early history than most people know. Australia seems to have ended up with the convict stereotype though.

  3. Re:Inquity ? by ComaVN · · Score: 4, Funny

    probably a misspelling of iniquity:
    in-iq-ui-ty
    Noun: Immoral or grossly unfair behavior.

    sounds about right

    --
    Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
  4. Re:Datacenter Super sized. by Enter+the+Shoggoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Do they even comprehend the amount of data this will be?
    This is just one step away from recording all telephone calls as well.
    1984, we didn't learn anything.

    Oh I think "we" did... "we" being our overlords - they read 1984 as a howto guide.

    --
    Andy Warhol got it right / Everybody gets the limelight
    Andy Warhol got it wrong / Fifteen minutes is too long.
  5. Encrypt everything by Morgaine · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Encryption of all your Internet comms has been recommended forever and a day, but the bulk of the population hasn't bothered so far because the "postman opening letters" hasn't been very overt and in the public eye.

    Now that the politicians are all in the game of demanding their "right" to monitor everything, perhaps it's time that people will respond by finally encrypting everything and telling the police state advocates to sod off and stop terrorizing the population.

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
    1. Re:Encrypt everything by pinkushun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Also that implementing and using encryption for personal use is more techy than the average being can handle. I'm hoping that https://silentcircle.com/ can approach this issue. Extra points for taking note of the founders...

  6. Mandatory surveillance of innocent people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So in effect:

    1. You're only innocent because you haven't committed a crime yet
    2. Thus they capture your data and store it
    3. After you've committed your crime, the data is there to prosecute you
    4. They've justified with reverse time causality.
    5. Ergo time travel is real.

    And if you don't commit a crime? Well obviously you haven't YET committed the crime that justified us putting you under surveillance in the past. So you must be a super cunning criminal. We'd better keep your data longer than 2 years, otherwise it might break the time-space continuum.

    That's what it amounts to, calling everyone a criminal and using that to take away their right to privacy.

  7. Re:ASIC SEC? by TheP4st · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Securities and Exchange Commission is the authority that oversee the stock and securities exchange market in the US, ASIC is the Australian equivalent.

    --
    "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
  8. This is how it begins by MysteriousPreacher · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, it's already begun, but it's another interesting example of how the police state develops. In an established democracy it's kind of difficult to simply introduce something akin to the Stasi - that worries people.

    The trick is to grant unreasonable powers to a group that doesn't appear to have much to do with the average citizen (such as ASIC), or instead give it to a group with what people see as a very specific remit to act only in certain areas (TSA). In the case of ASIC, why should the average guy in the street worry about those stock exchange guys having this power - it's not as if they'll be using to snoop on regular guys. With the TSA, turning airports in to constitution free zones, people are fine with that because they think it's only happening in airports, when in fact they're spilling out in to other aspects of transport. Get people used to presenting documents at airports, train stations and state borders, and before long you'll be able to stop them anywhere and do it. Same with intrusive physical searches. When stopped on a random road, the patriotic dad will proudly hum "God Bless the USA" as his daughter allows a former Wall*Mart shelf stacker with a badge to get his hands down her pants in the name of security and freedom.

    Asking for such a broad and patently unjustified ability to snoop has no place in a modern democracy. Ship them out to an embassy near to a country such as North Korea or Iran - in the hope that they'll defect to a place where their Orwellian urges can be sated.

    --
    -- Using the preview button since 2005
    1. Re:This is how it begins by digitalchinky · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You presume there is some giuding intelligence overseeing these power grabs with a view to a long term outlook. Having spent a big part of my career working for a secret 3 letter Australian agency, the reality seems more like everyone (particularly mid level management) simply needing to show they've been productively adding value between reporting periods. The vision extends no further than this.

      These all start out as imaginary problems, some can be monetized, others enable dot points on power point presentations with much self aggrandizement for those involved.

  9. Re:Datacenter Super sized. by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because most of the voting populace believe telephone to be a real communication medium and email, chat and texts just some toy for the youth.
    Because the vast majority of people is inherently short-sighted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came.

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  10. Re:Inquity ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your browser can't spell check? Sounds like you should switch to FireFox, it spell checks for me just fine.

    In deed, since eye ooze Firefox, eye know lounger have spelling miss takes inn may posts bee cause it chows two me all errors witch eye make.

  11. Re:TFS title by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Indeed, at least they said "the Aussie equivalent of the SEC" which wil still leave anyone not in the US or Australia clueless.

    Damn it, people EXPAND ACRONYMS! Especially obscure acronyms that are the same as tech or science acronyms. If you're talking about cops, don't say "LEO" because to us, an LEO isn't a law enforcement officer, it's low earth orbit. To the one or two of us who don't live in Australia, an ASIC is a chip.

    Gees...