For those who have been left massively out of the loop, data retention is a system that will see telcos and ISPs retain metadata on their customers for a prescribed period of time.
We all thought the data retention scheme was dead when the former Joint Select Committee on Security and Intelligence tabled a report to the former Labor government and then-Attorney General Nicola Roxon saying that it would be “up to the government” to decide what happened with data retention.
It originated a long time ago with the former Labor government who wanted a data retention scheme for similar reasons: to help out law enforcement catch bad guys and get the all-important conviction without having to go back in time to get a warranted wire-tap.
Attorney General George Brandis said that he expects data retention legislation to form the “third tranche” of the Government’s new counter-terrorist plan.
The Government will need to pass legislation in order to legally compel ISPs and telcos to retain data on their users.
Dalby said at a Senate Hearing that any mandatory data retention scheme would see the ISP saddled with an additional cost of $5 per user per month, which would arguably be passed on and charged to customers.
Privacy groups, telcos and ISPs alike see it as a privacy nightmare, simply because it scoops up everyone’s data at once, treating everyone as a suspect when no real crime has been committed by the overwhelming majority of users.
Read more here: Gizmodo
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