US surveillance review: are Australians ,or you, better off?

US surveillance review: are Australians better off?

Changes to US intelligence gathering practices are on the table, but they won't help Australians much, argue Philip Seltsikas and Max Soyref.

US President Barrack Obama has recently announced a number of changes to US intelligence gathering practices aimed at addressing some of the concerns that have soured foreign relations with its key allies.

This presidential directive outlines changes to the way the US gathers digital intelligence and how data gathered through these activities is to be stored and protected.

While the changes certainly signal a willingness to tackle some long standing privacy issues, there seems to be a lack of action on addressing concerns of foreign citizens whose personal data is accessed by the country's National Security Agency.

The Australian government needs to work closely with their US counterparts to ensure that proper guidelines are set in place to ensure that Australian private citizen data is used in a manner that protects individual rights while contributing to global anti-terrorism efforts.

Even the diplomatic tensions between Australia and Indonesia that resulted from the leaks seem belittled in comparison to the extent of embarrassment suffered by the Obama administration in the wake of publicity about the information collected on key American allies and the extent of access to personal information amassed by the NSA.The Snowden allegations related to government surveillance practices created issues for a number of world leaders by focusing attention on practices that many suspected but were rarely discussed.

By collecting and storing messages, emails and Facebook data the NSA appears able to access virtually every aspect of the everyday digital profile of ordinary citizens. While American citizens benefit from some protection under US law, Australians seem to have had their data much more readily accessible by American intelligence agencies that are conducting ‘legal’ surveillance.

Australia has one of the highest levels of Facebook usage per capita in the world and relatively high levels of internet penetration. Its citizens rely on modern day web applications which are either owned by American companies or for which the data traffic relies on American technology infrastructure. In this way, the NSA surveillance activities have a direct impact on the information many Australians consider to be private as their personal data is subject to harvesting and analysis.

The new US intelligence rules address concerns to reassure allied leaders with respect to their own surveillance. The directive doesn’t explicitly address popular concerns about the volume of data collected by the NSA – it simply aims to justify the necessity to collect as much data as is possible.

There is little detail in the directive to convince citizens that the ‘oversight provisions’ provide sufficient checks and balances. Single person access such as that afforded to Snowden at the time of his employment creates obvious risks and the potential for personal information of ordinary (innocent) individuals to be breeched. Training government employees in the ‘principles’ of the directive may not prove to be a sufficient safeguard.

Australian citizens should seek a clearer understanding of how their data is being accessed and used by foreign governments, particularly in the light of the sort of data access the NSA has forged with the PRISM program. While the Australian Government has commented on the concerns from an Australian data perspective, little seems () to have been done.

In June, now Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull highlighted the issue of privacy in Australian data stored in US-owned cloud services. He reported to have raised the matter with the US government, however follow-on actions to improve the way Australian data is handled or continued dialogue on the matter since the new Abbott government took office has not been visible.

It is important for Australians who care about their rights to privacy to argue for greater protections and controls with regard to their private information and digital activity. At minimum, clearer oversight guidelines in the processing of Australian citizen data would help to restore some concerns.

The new US reforms may allay concerns at the highest levels of government but do not go far enough in considering the privacy rights of everyday citizens.

Philip Seltsikas is an Associate Professor of Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney Business School. His research focuses on the application of ICT in business and government.  Max Soyref is a PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney Business School. His doctoral research focuses on information security strategy in Australian businesses.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/it-pro/it-opinion/us-surveillance-review-are-australians-better-off-20140130-hvaid.html