On 13 April 2015 the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (TIA Act) was changed.  This date might be insignificant to most people, but unbeknownst to many Australian’s it’s the date that our national data retention laws changed and whether it is for the better, is to be debated.  This debate is currently headed by two main arguments; the first is that it is the next step in national security to the fight against terrorism (Brandis & Turnbull 2014); however, the opposing argument is that it ‘clearly limits the right to privacy’ described by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (PJCHR 2014, p.11).

 

This amendment was originally introduced by the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill (the ‘Bill’) on 30 October 2014. The most significant change involves requiring telecommunication service providers to retain and secure telecommunications data for two years. That is, companies such as Telstra will have to retain the source and destination of a communication, date, time and duration of communication, plus the location and what services were used (Keane 2015). This increased surveillance has created public debate about whether or not these laws are a breach upon citizens right to privacy.

 

What is Data Retention? 

Data Retention is the compulsory retention of information about a citizen’s telecommunications and online usage, either by Internet service providers themselves or by government agencies. This retention is so that law enforcement agencies can use this data to investigate crime and national security threats. 

 

Data retention throughout the bill is referred to as ‘metadata’ and interestingly the TIA Act does not provide a specific, positive definition of metadata. Since metadata is not difficult to define, some argue that this vagueness is a form of politics. This is because the term and ‘data retention’ itself include a whole range of other issues. As Professor John McMillan stated, “There is the question of data capture, data minimization, data security, data storage, and data use. All of those issues are sort of tossed around fairly indiscriminately, and all under the umbrella of ‘data retention”(McMillan 2013, p.22).

 

This non-exhaustive definition may lead to the scope of metadata being collected to be broadened. Rubenstein 2013, even mentions the notion of ‘big data’ that being a moer powerful form of data mining that relies on huge volumes of data, faster companies, and new analytic techniques to discover hidden correlations.

 

Want to know more about metadata? ABC News comments on the wide scope and highlights what information will be collected by the new amendments to the TIA Act.