Category: Privacy

Pirate Party Australia applauds the recent remarks of Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull in relation to the interception and storage of digital communications.

Mr Turnbull expressed “very grave misgivings” about the proposal for data retention contained within the ongoing National Security Inquiry’s discussion paper. Mr Turnbull also indicated that he believes the right to private communications — including the ability to destroy correspondence and personal records — should be maintained, regardless of medium[1].

Pirate Party Australia is pleased to see a Member of Parliament actually voice concern over the proposals considering the immense public backlash against them.

Read More

Pirate Party Australia expresses grave concerns at the stance taken by the four Police Commissioners at the National Security Commission Hearings in Sydney on Wednesday, who made clear their desires for vastly overreaching data retention schemes.

While professing to have only “true and pure” motives, the four commissioners reluctantly accepted the proposed two-year retention period while stating they would prefer five-year, seven-year or even unlimited retention periods[1].

“It appears that the police commissioners are trying to portray their two-year retention proposal as a reluctant compromise, yet any blanket warrantless arbitrary retention of the communication data of the entire population is a totally unnacceptable risk to civil liberties and fundamental privacy rights,” said Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer, Deputy Secretary of Pirate Party Australia. “While arguing about ‘how out of date interception laws are,’ they seemed oblivious to the fact that an intrusive scheme of warrantless retention of data was already passed under the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill. These amendments provide targeted retention on request, rather than automatic blanket retention of everyone’s data.”

“We object to any widescale surveillance systems, and oppose mandatory data retention for all Internet connections, regardless of the retention period. Judicial oversight and explicit, limited warrants are necessary safeguards that the National Security Inquiry discussion paper proposes to eliminate. It appears that the police commissioners are essentially saying ‘trust us’ while attempting to do away with judicial oversight of their actions, railing agianst the ‘burdensome’ nature of warrants – an element key to protecting society from abuse of powers.”

The Pirate Party is alarmed by the cavalier attitude displayed by the police agencies as to the “burdensome” aspect of warrants and the lack of regard to ways such powers could be abused and compromise privacy.

Read More