Data retention scheme prompts privacy concerns from IA

Privacy concerns have been raised by Internet Australia (IA) after the federal government called for a radical expansion of its data retention scheme.

The controversial move could see a process that was primarily designed for criminal investigations being used in civil cases.

IA has previously described data retention legislation as “fundamentally flawed” and believes there could be some serious privacy implications arising from the proposal.

“This takes us into uncharted waters when it comes to using communications technology and personal data in court cases involving private individuals and which have nothing necessarily to do with criminality,” IA CEO Laurie Patton said.

“The data retention law was passed nearly two years ago on the grounds of an urgent need to combat terrorism and it hasn’t even come into effect, and yet the Attorney-General’s Department apparently wants to see it extended to include civil litigation.”

ISPs are required to have systems in place by April 2017 to retain their customers’ metadata for a two-year period. However, IA suggests that only a minority of ISPs will be compliant, which will not be beneficial for combating terrorism.

The Attorney General’s Department received applications from 210 ISPs seeking funding to help them meet the costs of compliance, of which 180 were approved. However, industry estimates of the total number of Australian ISPs ranges from 250 to more than 400.

“So there are potentially hundreds of ISPs not known to the Attorney General’s Department, and not all of them will necessarily be collecting and storing the metadata they are required to keep. We really don’t know how many. It’s extraordinary that the government didn’t ask the obvious question right upfront — how many ISPs are we talking about?” said Patton.

IA has previously warned that the costs of the data retention scheme will inevitably be passed on to consumers. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated the cost of compliance to the industry at $738 million over the first 10 years. IA believes that this underestimates the likely total, given that the figure was based on an incomplete list of ISPs.

“The government funding is already nowhere near enough. ISPs are out of pocket and they’re unhappy. This exercise has been a disaster from the start and by the looks of it things are only going to become more controversial,” said Patton.

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