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Australian Government Rejects Data Retention Law After Report
mask.of.sanity writes "The Australian Government has shelved its plans to proactively store communications data of every citizen ostensibly to assist with law enforcement and intelligence efforts. The shelving (video) comes after a scathing report by Australian parliamentarians who investigated the Government's plans, and three months ahead of a federal election in which the Government is expected to lose office."
In other countries, occationally orwellian laws are blocked by elected officials.
In the US, they all shrug and try to explain away our rights.
Thank goodness? No!
Thank Snowden instead, that man is a hero.
This bill (or whatever it is) has been rejected thanks to Snowden.
Snowden has made too obvious for the People what governments do against them.
It might examine only a few thousand by hand, but it is all being recorded.
Data mining isn't "examining a few thousand by hand". It's the analysis on the mass data that matters. You may drill down to specific emails/calls/transfers/etc, but to know which ones, you need to be able to map entire networks of associations.
This is not like the cameras on an ATM that stores unwatched images unless a specific event prompts someone to look at a specific time. Your personal data is not being blindly stored on these systems, unwatched since you've done nothing anyone cares about, it is being analysed along with everyone else's.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Voters are idiots
Are you saying you don't vote, or that you are an idiot?
Parent AC didn't mean "...because of this"; the current government is pulling record low numbers in the polls. They are hated and are going to be destroyed in the next election.
And it sucks, because the leader of the next government is a US-style neo-conservative religious nutter. And his party is dominated by True Believers in US-style trickle-down economics. The current government's incompetence is going to allow something much worse to take over, not only to control the lower House (and hence the executive) but likely the Senate, giving them basically a rubber stamp on anything they want to shove through.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Normally I doubt the influence world public opinion has on moronic pollies, But I suspect in this instance this is actually correct. The current government has tried to get other orwellian legislation passed including internet filters so them actually being against it themselves is unlikely. I think Snowden has highlighted how unpopular such ideas are and with a government that is almost certainly getting thrown out for incompetence come september they hardly need another nail in their coffin.
If only Snowden hadn't been such a true believer in Obama, he would have released his cache before the prior election and forced the issue into the spotlight in the US. Both parties would be backpedaling furiously.
As it is, the administration (along with the opposition party) will do everything in its power to demonize him, when in fact he should be getting the Medal of Freedom. Here's hoping there is another Snowden in position to divulge the illegal spying in the run-up to the next election and perhaps some headway can be made on this issue. If not, it will all peter out in the States, and then all pretense if restrictions will be gone.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Yet you still wind up with a government that's competing with the UK and USA for the Police State Award.
Do we?!
I mean the inept Australian government actually felt it necessary to go to parliament to get legislative power to do what the UK and USA Police states just went ahead and did.
In Australia we were displeased because we were informed about the government's intentions. The US and UK governments did not see fit similarly to displease their respective constituents. The Australian government has backed down in the face of both public and parliamentary opposition to the plan. Do you seriously believe the US or the UK are about dismantle their machinery? For all the articles the Guardian may publish?
Not much of a competition I would say.
Democracy ... I'm occasionally hopeful that it might work after all.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
I work as an election official on election day. Posting as an AC to protect anonymity.
Legally, you are incorrect. Under the Electoral Act, it is your duty to vote, and an offence not to. Practically, of course, you are correct. Because voting is secret, nobody can tell if you voted... unless you admit it on Slashdot.
What I wanted to say is that I have one request, and one request only, on behalf of election officials everywhere: Please take the ballot papers that have been issued to you and put them in the ballot box. Fill them out or don't. Write a slogan on them. I don't care, do anything you want... just put them into the ballot box in one piece.
There have been some very close elections around the world recently, including Australia. What makes Australia different is that there has been no question of electoral fraud.
We don't often stop to consider just how remarkable this is. Look at the mess of the 2000 presidential elections in the US, or the previous elections resulting in a hung parliament in the UK, or Italy (just Italy; I don't think I need to expand on that). We may not know how to run a country, but we know how to run an election. We do it bloody well, and this is something you can be proud of.
One of the tenets of security is that you analyse known threats and look for patterns, and one of the mechanisms that is commonly used to rig elections around the world is to selectively remove ballot papers from being considered in the count. There are various methods to do this, from stealing and destroying them, to changing the rules of formality post facto (hanging chads, anyone?).
It's an unbelievably huge deal if ballot papers go missing. Removing ballot papers from the polling centre does not send any message to your politicians, nor does it help change the system. All it does is causes a major headache for already-exhausted casual employees. (Don't forget, we've been at the polling centre since an hour before it opened, and have to stay there until counting finishes. It's a very long day.)
Whatever you think about compulsory voting, or the state of the political system and the major parties, it is not the fault of the Australian Electoral Commission or their casual staff. So... yeah, please put the damn papers in the damn box.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Sincerely,
Your friendly election official
I've never understood why some people are so concerned about big government but then give monopolies to big businesses.
http://www.xkcd.com/354/