Mandatory data retention: spy plan faces grassroots challenge

Ben Grubb  Deputy technology editor

A 25-year-old Brisbane software developer hopes his grassroots campaign will put pressure on the Abbott government to scrap its controversial mandatory data retention proposal.

The proposal, due to be brought before Parliament before the end of the year, would require telecommunications companies such as Telstra, Optus and Vodafone to store highly personal information about all Australians for up to two years for access by law-enforcement agencies.

Dubbed "Stop the Spies", Thomas Davis' online campaign aims to raise awareness of the privacy implications of the controversial plan, which has "in principle" support of the National Security Committee.

A screen grab from the Stop the Spies website.

A video on the campaign site, created by Sydney animation studio The Magnificent Itch, showsthe types of data government agencies will potentially gain access to without a warrant under the regime. The video says it will give law-enforcement agencies - including police, ASIO, the Tax Office, Centrelink and local councils - the power to "monitor the behaviour" of whomever they like online.

Details about everything people do on the internet, including the emails they send and the apps they use could be kept as part of the regime, the video says. Who they talk to on the phone, and who talks to them, would also be collected, as well as "your location when walking about with your mobile".

The information could be accessed with an authorisation form signed off by a senior official within the agencies. Access to such information is already possible with no judicial oversight and the government says it is only seeking to ensure the data continues to be held by telcos for a fixed time.

"The main action to take on the site is to contact your legislator or your representative," Mr Davis said. "So we allow people to put in their location or their postcode and we find the best representatives ... for them and they can then contact them via Twitter, Facebook or email.

"I guess we're just trying to show legislators that there is a large group of people who have a problem with [data retention] ... and I guess for a lot of people it's hard for them to find out their legislators' contact information or some people don't know how to. So what we're trying to do is lower the barrier to entry for people who are not used to even contacting representatives to just easily be able to do it and feel confident that they are contacting the right person."

Mr Davis, who has been involved in past campaigns as part of US digital rights group Electronics Frontier Foundation, said the campaign had received no funding and was the work of volunteers.

It had been created in two months after he saw Attorney-General George Brandis' "car crash" TV interview in which the senior cabinet minister bungled an explanation of "metadata" the government wanted stored.

Critics said Mr Brandis failed horribly at detailing the policy and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull had come to his rescue, saying the government had yet to decide what data would be stored.

"So it was actually straight after the metadata interview with George Brandis," Mr Davis said of when he decided to start the campaign. "I was sitting at the computer and thinking, 'I'm not sure we should have legislators who don't understand the technical implications of writing legislation'.

"So I just put out a post on [social media news website] Reddit seeing if anyone in Australia ... wanted to volunteer [and campaign against it]."

A number of people responded and Mr Davis got to work creating the site launched on Monday.

Mr Davis warned that implementing data retention in Australia could result in a boycott by overseas companies using Australian telecommunications infrastructure, just as some countries abandoned US infrastructure after secret documents were released by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Those documents showed the extent of spying by the agency.

"What happens when a country goes down the path of having data retention and mass surveillance of its citizens is that you get international businesses boycotting the country," Mr Davis said.

"This has happened in America with the NSA - a lot of countries ...  [began] boycotting American businesses because they don't feel like that country could keep their users' data protected or safe."

If the data retention proposal goes through, Mr Davis said he hoped judicial oversight would be introduced.

"To me, the accountability of who is looking at the data is the most important," he said.

A similar campaign, dubbed "Citizens, not suspects", was launched in August by digital rights group Electronic Frontiers Australia and political activist group GetUp! 

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/mandatory-data-retention-spy-plan-faces-grassroots-challenge-20141006-10qxp1.html