NDM 22

Phone and web data plan under fire for interfering with privacy
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/14/phone-and-web-data-plan-under-fire-for-interfering-with-privacy

• The federal government’s plans to retain phone and web data for two years 
• The committee’s findings are particularly significant because it has four Labor members, three Liberal members, two Nationals members and one Greens member.
• 500,000 disclosures made by telecommunications companies
• Australia’s law enforcement agencies are already filing 500,000 requests a year for warrantless access to metadata
• The AFP has refused to confirm or deny the existence of any documents relating to these requests
• Requiring government agencies to gain a warrant for accessing telecommunications from either a court or independent authority before access.

The federal government’s plans to retain phone and web data for two years will unreasonably interfere with privacy and could having a “chilling effect” on journalists, a bipartisan parliamentary human rights committee has found. The federal parliament’s human rights committee has highlighted a series of human rights concerns with the bill and recommended that access to telecommunications data should be subject to a warrant system, to avoid “arbitrary interferences” in Australians’ private lives.

In my opinion I think human rights committee finds the plan to retain data for two years could have a ‘chilling effect’ on journalists. The government has had previously got knowledge of  bipartisan support with the Labor party for their first two packages of national security legislation. The data retention bill has been referred to the joint parliamentary committee on intelligence and security, but it is not clear whether there will be hearings before the parliamentary sitting year ends.