Threats to privacy in proposed new intercept rules averted, says EFA

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 05:24

IT Industry - Strategy

Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) says its concerns with draft amendments to telecommunications interception legislation have been addressed in the bill as tabled.

The new legislation - The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill 2009 - is designed to give ISPs, telcos and the owners of corporate networks increased powers to monitor customer communications on their networks to enable them to better operate and manage those networks and enforce acceptable staff use policies.

Writing on the EFA's blog, chairman Nic Suzor, said: "I am happy to say that the Bill as introduced has removed the greatest majority of our concerns. It appears to be closely tailored to network security purposes, and the ability to monitor for whether a network is being ‘appropriately used’ is limited to Commonwealth agencies. There are additionally much stronger limitations as to when intercepted information can be disclosed."

At the time the exposure draft was circulated for comment, EFA expressed great concern that, according to Suzor, "the proposed legislation provided a very broad exception to the general prohibition on interception of telecommunications. The original wording of the exposure draft would have allowed any network operators to monitor their networks for compliance with acceptable use policies or other user agreements. It then provided no real limitations on the disclosure of this information. We were very concerned that this would allow consumer ISPs to monitor their subscribers’ internet access and disclose communications to third parties."

The bill is now the subject of a Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee enquiry . The committee has called for submissions by 09 October and is due to report by 16 November. EFA is drafting a submission, collaboratively via its wiki .