Displaying items by tag: Data Retention

The Department of Home Affairs wants IP addresses, MAC addresses and port numbers to be added to the list of data retained by providers under the existing data retention regime, according to a submission made to a review of the law.

The UK will have to change parts of its Investigatory Powers Act, after the High Court upheld a legal challenge brought by human rights campaigning group Liberty.

The Court of Appeal in London has ruled that an overarching data retention law put in place by the UK Government, allowing access to phone and email records, lacks adequate safeguards.

In the wake of the Australian Government’s statement on national security, Internet Australia chief Laurie Patton has called for it to consult widely with independent industry experts before taking decisions on Internet security.

Australia’s new data retention laws have been labelled as rubbish, and even anti-competitive, by wholesale telecommunications and IT services group Inabox.

Australia’s new data retention laws nominally come into effect tomorrow — Good Friday — but Internet Australia still maintains the scheme is unlikely to fully achieve the federal government’s aims.

EXCLUSIVE: Internet Australia chief executive Laurie Patton is moving on after more than two years at the helm of the advocacy and lobby group representing Internet users.

Internet Australia chief Laurie Patton has started 2017 in much the same way he ended 2016, calling on the Australian Government to institute a new parliamentary inquiry into the Data Retention Act.

Internet Australia, the peak body representing Internet users, has criticised a move by the Federal Government to call for submissions over the Christmas period for what it describes as a “radical expansion of its controversial data retention scheme”.

The Abbott Coalition government pushed through laws on metadata retention last year claiming that they would aid in the fight against terrorism. Yet it appears that when metadata access is sought, the crime being investigated most of the time has to do with drugs.

Telstra, Optus and Vodafone have together been apportioned about 65% of the funds allocated for companies to implement the data retention scheme that the government voted into law more than a year ago.

The Communications Alliance has urged the federal government to exercise regulatory restraint if some telecommunications service providers are unable to fully comply with the mandatory two-year data retention regime by the time of the April 2017 deadline.

Internet Australia fears Australia is being held back and put at a disadvantage with other countries in taking  up the new business and employment opportunities afforded by the Internet of Things, because of the lag in development and innovation of new technologies.

Google's retention of telephone metadata in Germany may contravene EU regulations and could even be a criminal offence, a former German federal commissioner for data security has warned.

Banished NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has warned that Australia has gone further down the slippery slope of unfettered mass surveillance than even the US. Yesterday Snowden pointed to the recent raids by the Australian Federal Police on the offices of senior ALP parliamentarian Senator Stephen Conroy and a staffer of Opposition communications spokesman Jason Clare to illustrate the potential danger of using retained metadata for nefarious political purposes.

Two of Australia’s ICT industry bodies – the Australian Computer Society and Internet Australia - have lauded the government’s Budget funding commitments to the establishment of a national cyber security strategy.

Internet Australia chief Laurie Patton has warned that some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) could be forced to close their businesses if the government doesn’t allocate the right level of funding to them to help meet the costs of complying with new Data Retention regulations.

Telecommunications service providers have until late February to apply for grants to assist them in meeting their data retention obligations under new laws which came into effect in October last year.

The Federal Government has gone some way to overcoming industry concerns about its proposed telecommunications sector security reform legislation, with two of the key industry bodies acknowledging that a revised draft of the legislation just released has, at least, taken into account some of their concerns.

The Attorney General’s department admission that it is now only going to release half of the compensation it promised ISPs for the costs of implementing the Data Retention Act, has sparked industry outrage.