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Australian Spy Agency Offered To Share Data About Ordinary Citizens
An anonymous reader writes "Australian spy agencies offered to share personal information about law-abiding Australian citizens with overseas governments. This includes legal, religious and medical information, which was shared about this Canadian women. Departments in the Australian Public service has also been caught spying on citizens. Even low-ranking public servants can look up information such as phone calls and email metadata without needing a warrant. The target is not notified."
Government officials behaving like Internet businessmen!
All the way back in 1995, when I first started using the World Wide Web, some users were advocating for strong privacy protections. We were ignored, then laughed at, then insulted with the "tinfoil hat" labrel.
Are you ready to reconsider our point, that society is better off if governments are corporations do NOT have free reign to collect, store, and mine as much data about us as they want?
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
In retaliation, from this point forward I'm going to make jokes about Australia being a country full of dim-witted criminals.
Q: What did the government do the public servant who broken into private computers and stole private data?
A: Awarded him with Australia's highest prize for thievery, the Stealybaloo Award.
I've never been much of a fan of democracy (well democracy as we call it in Australia). As such we need someone to play watchdog to the corrupt government officials who bleed our wallets and souls dry. I would have thought that this was the Governor General's responsibility; if not then who or what can we do to expose the government when they don't act in our interests or good faith?
That these came from leaked Snowden documents can't be true. cold fjord told us that Snowden's leaks were only to harm the US government and would never include things about other governments. *rolls eyes*
The book predates the hospitalization the official referred to.
Next try?
yeah so if you write a book then it's free game to share medical records about time after writing the book?
I guess that explains hemingway.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
we want to do that...
oh wait no we don't... yes thats what centrelink etc are trying to do is catch fraud...
its not like they leave windows machines administrators full access to classified documents...
how many australians are concerned about immigration ?
thanks
John
The book were published in 2009, the agent that prevented her entry specifically referred to a hospitalization that took place in 2012. How did they know about events that should be shielded under patient privacy laws and took place years after publishing of mentioned book? Unless you can point to a source describing her 2012 hospitalization that were publicly available at the time of her entry denial, then I'd say that her story have a very interesting place in this matter.
"I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
And also angry at the Departments in the Australian Public service that has been caught spying.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
The interesting thing to me is how little(except for places like /., etc;) extrapolation is done regarding our erosion of privacy and rights.
No one seems to think we are on a slippery slope here.
Yes, I know it's BEYOND trite and redundant to quote or reference Orwells' 1984, but hey, a guy having to stand in the corner of his apartment to stay out of view of telescreens and microphones is essentially where we are headed.
We are almost there now.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Read up, they handed bulk, data on everyone over, with nothing but a pinky swear:
"DSD offered to share bulk, unselected, unminimised metadata – although there were specific caveats. The note taker at the meeting writes: “However, if a ‘pattern of life’ search detects an Australian then there would be a need to contact DSD and ask them to obtain a ministerial warrant to continue.”"
So NSA, and GCHQ, I'll give you all this data on Australians and in turn, you pinky swear (and no crossing fingers behind backs!) promise to come and ask us for a warrant if you find an Australian among this Australian data. OK?
"But Geoffrey Robertson, writing in the Guardian today, says if what was described in the memo took place, this would be a breach of sections eight and 12 of the Intelligence Services Act 2001. The act sets a strict requirement that ministerial authorisation is required if the data of an Australian citizen is involved, and indicates that the citizen must be a "person of interest", such as someone involved in terrorism or organised crime."
Damn f**ing right. The a law requires a warrant to spy on Australians, it does not let the DSD spy on them, then hand all the data over to a foreign power, with nothing but a promise note that they'll come back and ask the DSD to get a warrant if their searches suggest an Australian!
Un-f**ing believable.
it is all fucked up now. I think we need a reboot.
This includes legal, religious and medical information, which was shared about this Canadian women.
How does the Australian spy agency share medical data on a Canadian woman?
'If you're not cop, you're little people.'
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Why doesn't the summary mention Snowden?
You better run, you better take cover.
This is something that I truly worry about it. We are constantly bombarded with new outrages and many people are like "meh, it sucks. but what you gunna do?"
Is there an antidote?
Either give it away or get top dollar, but never sell yourself cheap.
Quite simply information is power. Governments might claim (and potentially truthfully) that they won't abuse this power; but it is power that they have quite simply grabbed without much debate. On the otherhand we the people are denied much information about government with them saying that it would be a security issue to hand out much of the most powerful information. So why is it that minor nobodies with little or no oversight can go through my most personal banking, telephoning, and medical information while the most basic information such as the exact details of how government officials are spending my money are hidden.
Few if any freedom of information laws have real teeth and governments push back against them as hard as is possible with outlandish fees, redacted information, delays, byzantine application and appeals processes, and in the end no consequences if they obstruct or don't comply. Let's see what happens when the government demands information from you and you start hitting them with per page fees, redacting information, or just saying no.
I have a simple suggestion: that laws be put into place that severely limit the government's ability to gather information about us. And another set of laws that give the public pretty well open and near total access to any government record. The only records that should be "secret" are ones where the harm greatly outweighs the public good and even then there could be time limits. Two examples would be a few things involving criminal investigations such as informants, undercover officers, wiretaps, etc. The other would be individual medical records as people would otherwise be reluctant to seek treatment for embarrassing conditions or at least be honest with their doctor.
But severely limiting the government would almost certainly result in their doing an end run and using private organizations to do their spying. So the law would have to reach out and limit any organization from gathering or sharing data. A simple example that I would love to see is that a company would not be allowed to disseminate/sell data even in the aggregate that they gathered for a specific purpose beyond that purpose. So if a contest gets your name they can use it for picking a winner, not for further marketing. If the power company gets your address they can hook you up and send you bills. If the credit card companies see you make a purchase they can bill you for it but that is it. A critical part of such a law would be that a contract can not depend upon someone waving that right, nor can their be negative option waivers.
A simple way to formulate this law would be to find out the various data sources that junk mailers use and make them all illegal; that plus a bit of common sense would make for an awesome life improving law.
Yes. It's called prison. For that you need a judge.
For that you need the law.
It's a grand idea. It should be implemented.
Cool, sign me up for a blackmaili^H^H^H^H^H^H^H public servant job!11
Why is Australia a sad joke compared to the USA. Both have a similar recent history, with their significant origins in the British Empire. Both are effectively continental nations with unthinkable levels of natural resources. But the USA was developed by the British (every philosophical aspect of the so-called American Revolution was designed by British thinkers to create) to create Britain II, whereas Australia was kept as a crap-hole to serve various nasty purposes.
Today, Australia has a level of social engineering that rivals that seen in some of the Scandinavian (old Viking) nations. Austarlia is what is know as a 'soft' or 'hidden' police state, where the population are coerced from birth to think they willingly demand obscene levels of sheeple control.
In Australia:
-voting is compulsory. You break the law if you refuse to vote. Of course, since anyone who votes, no matter how they vote, gives active support to the current system, every citizen of this sick nation is FORCED to actively support the current system- BY LAW.
-your driving licence can be removed, by simple a simple police request, if you have 'broken' the law in any regard.
-the Orwellian 'department of statistics' has (and uses) the legal power to forcibly 'interview' any citizen, asking them the most intrusive and sickening questions about their sex lives and other personal issues. Such 'interviews' also include forcible physical inspection of the victims body. To make this clearer, this department sends MEN to the home of single women, to grill them on their sex life, and to take intimate body measurements, and if the woman refuses, she can be imprisoned.
Now the usual vile shills will try to tell you that POWERFUL, informed citizens can fight things like the above, and to a greater extent this is true- but irrelevant. In any highly abusive society, the well informed and well educated people in better positions of power suffer least. No police state, hard or soft, gains by butting its head against people with the ability to make large numbers of others UNHAPPY about the nature of their society.
It is the ordinary Australian woman, for instance, when confronted by the official pervert from the Australian statistics department who will find it 'easier' to just accept to horror of the questioning and physical inspection, rather than demand to know what here 'rights' and options really are. On the OFFICIAL site of the State Statistical department are instructions for their employees and how to intimidate their victims by referring to their power to have the non-compliant jailed.
Those in high office in Australia are the worst forms of petty corrupt filth. Australia has no elite class at all- Australia simply does the bidding of the elite in the UK (and to some extent the USA). Australia, like Canada, are faux-'independent' nations that are actually part of the British sphere of influence (the way that the Ukraine, to use a recent example, is really part of Putin's empire).
Australia spies on its citizens, and invites the world to use this data, NOT because anyone gives a damn about anything any Australian ever does, but to lay down precedents monsters like Tony Blair want to be followed in more important nations across our planet. As Blair travels the world he says "if it is 'good' enough for the Australians, we should be doing the same in Britain, America etc". Of course, there already is full surveillance in Britain and America, but Blair wants a future where the sheeple are AWARE of this fact, and 'comfortable' with it, and its daily visible consequences.
Except the sociopaths, those in power (police etc) and especially those who are both.
The only source we have that she was denied entry based upon an event in 2012 is her own word. Please note that this news story will help sell more copies of her book.
-voting is compulsory. You break the law if you refuse to vote. Of course, since anyone who votes, no matter how they vote, gives active support to the current system, every citizen of this sick nation is FORCED to actively support the current system- BY LAW.
You are not prevented from casting an invalid vote.
... not America nor England.
It's out of Cold Fjord's jurisdiction.
we want to do that...
oh wait no we don't... yes thats what centrelink etc are trying to do is catch fraud...
its not like they leave windows machines administrators full access to classified documents...
Er, that was Work and Income New Zealand, not Centrelink Australia.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Are you just buthurt your immigration was refused?
I'm glad they kept you out.
you are not legally required to vote at all, you are legally required to attend a polling place, and have your name marked off, after that you are free to leave with or without voting
-the Orwellian 'department of statistics' has (and uses) the legal power to forcibly 'interview' any citizen, asking them the most intrusive and sickening questions about their sex lives and other personal issues.
Sorry, but what are you even talking about?
I can't find anything online called the Department of Statistics (except for in various universities, of course). Do you mean the Australian Bureau of Statistics?
They're the ones who send out a census form to be filled in and mailed back. I have never heard any suggestion that they send representatives to question people directly, let alone "physical inspection" or wielding the threat of jail time.
Do you have a source for this?
Am I just feeding a troll, here?
however being invalid means it wouldn't count... so don't waste your time.
Ohhh... you dont mean Invalid aka handy-capable
Well done sir.
Hopefully all the ignorant people like you believe this tripe and never bother to come to Australia.
They country thanks you for your service.
So why is Australia's government and society so much better than America's.
They get healthcare and decent government (that isnt shutdown on a whim) and sensible laws.
In Australia they also have more than one party, unlike the US.
The politicians are kicked out for being corrupt or simply unintelligent. In the US both these things are encouraged in politicians of all types.
Australians vote in large numbers and so the reasonable middle has a large say in the decisions of the government.
Contrast to the US where the only people who vote are the nutters on the fringes who are angry enough to do something, while the rest of you complain about your useless politicians. If your not voting in the US you must be extremely happy with the current situation, since you dont bother to chang it.
Australia spies a bit and gives the US the data, in exchange Australia gets ALL the US data. Who is getting the raw deal here?
Your medication must have worn off here as the rest of your post about a "department of statistics" is a total fiction.
PS. The British must have been extremely incompetent to try and create a crap-hole, but accidentally make the economy have the highest GDP per capita in the world in its early days.
Australia has no elite class at all- Australia simply does the bidding of the elite in the UK (and to some extent the USA)
You do know that Rupert Murdoch was an Australian for way way longer than he is an American and that he basicly chooses the British government and owns Fox News and therefore the Republican party as well. He only gained US citizenship to own media in the US.
Not bad for a country with no elite class.
In reality though, the country is too small for most serious elites to bother with. So they move on to bigger^W more corrupt countries to increase their wealth and influence.