Privacy – Page 3 of 19 – Pirate Party Australia

Pirate Party calls on ABS to declare name and address optional for 2016 Census

Posted on August 5, 2016

Despite the serious privacy concerns first raised by the Pirate Party in March, and now shared by thousands of Australians as well as the Greens, Nick Xenophon and Andrew Wilkie, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has continued to forge ahead with the invasive 2016 Census. For the first time the ABS is planning to keep names for four years, linking very personal information asked by the Census questionnaire. Like many, the Pirate Party has raised objections to the collection of identifying information, and now calls on the ABS to declare the giving of “Name” and “Address” optional.

“The ABS has not properly consulted with the Australian public on this new, more invasive version of the Census,” said Simon Frew, President of the Pirate Party. “Names are not required by law according to former Australian Statistician Bill McLennan [PDF], and it is difficult to see how names could help with statistical analysis. Collecting names does, however, increase the danger of privacy breaches for Australian citizens which, given the ABS has been subject to 14 data breaches in the last three years, is particularly concerning. A simple way for the ABS put many Australians at ease is to make it optional for people to give their names and address.”

Pirate Party Australia: A Free Internet For All

Posted on June 6, 2016

“Pirate Party Australia is proud to announce that digital rights are central to our campaign in the 2016 Federal election. Campaigning under the slogan ‘Transparency Liberty Digital Rights,’ or TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read), we aim to reverse the trend of governments operating under an increasingly dense veil of secrecy, whilst subjecting citizens to increasingly intrusive surveillance.” said Lachlan Simpson, Pirate Party candidate for the Victorian Senate.

“The Internet has been under attack from successive governments. The Abbott/Turnbull government has passed a mass surveillance regime and legislation to enable Internet censorship, with the support of the ALP,” continued Lachlan. “We pledge to fight tirelessly for Internet freedom. Pirate Party Australia has an extensive platform on digital liberties[1] and was formed precisely to oppose such attacks on our rights.”

Since 9/11 Australia has passed more than 40 different terrorism related pieces of legislation. These have generally been passed with bi-partisan support and include many attacks on basic human rights[2]. We are now under warrantless mass surveillance[3], journalists can be jailed for reporting on investigations[4], citizens can be detained without charge[5] and ASIO can theoretically hack the entire Internet under a single warrant[6].

Changing the game for Australia’s small parties and community groups

Posted on April 5, 2016

For several months now, the Pirate Party has been working with ThoughtWorks to develop a digital tool that could change the game for small political parties and community groups in Australia.

“It is hard to run a community group or a political party in this country”, said Thomas Randle, Councillor for Pirate Party Australia. “Anyone in the community group space will know how punishing the red tape has become, and how many different pieces of software are needed to protect membership lists and deal with the administration”.

Not any more though: the Pirate Party intends to launch a new, specialised membership management tool customised for the needs of Australia’s struggling small parties and community groups. This new software not only protects membership data to the highest standard, it also allows a party to easily meet AEC audit requirements. It contains tailored software designed to simplify administration and financial management. It also has mechanisms to manage member communication. It is an all-in-one party management tool which replaces a whole mass of disconnected software programs and also adds a range of new functions which parties and groups need. This powerful software should free up significant resources and time so that community groups and small parties can focus on their important work.

“The best news is, this software will be totally free”, said Mr Randle. “In line with the Pirate Party’s ethos, we are sharing this product as open source freeware, and encouraging anyone interested to get involved in improving and updating it”.

The Pirate Party has started a fundraising drive to help us meet the costs of bringing this project to completion. We are appealing to anyone who wants to make a difference to chip in and help to make this happen.

“A donation to this project won’t be consumed and used up—our goal here is to permanently lift the tide under every community group and small party in Australia”, he noted.

To help and for more information, please check out the campaign page here: http://www.pozible.com/memberdb

Pirate Party Calls for Census Boycott Due to Privacy Concerns

Posted on March 21, 2016

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has recently announced that people being surveyed for the Census can no longer retain their anonymity. The ABS will now retain the names and addresses of all contributors to the 2016 Australian Census[1]. The previous Census introduced retention of private data on an opt-in basis, but this time around, retention of private data is to be compulsory.

“Whilst we don’t believe that the ABS is planning to collect identifiable information for nefarious purposes, there are serious privacy concerns with collecting names and addresses along with all of the other personal information gathered in the Census,” said Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. “A future government could simply re-collate the data and use the information to target opponents based on religion, career or ethnicity. When potential abuse can only be thwarted by the good-will of future governments, the risk to personal safety is too great.”

Data retention looms over Australians, ISPs silenced

Posted on October 10, 2015

Mandatory data retention is set to come into effect on 13 October 2015. Despite the certainty of this date, there remains considerable uncertainty within the communications industry as to what data needs to be retained to comply with the law. Among this confusion the Attorney-General’s Department has advised the industry that exemptions to the data retention regime will be revoked if their existence is publicised[1]. This is despite the legislation not specifically requiring exemptions remain confidential. The Department has argued that this is to “prevent exposing gaps in data retention legislation to be exposed to criminals”.

“The Government and the Attorney-General’s Department would have the communications industry lie down and accept its fate,” commented Michael Keating, Deputy President of the Pirate Party. “The fact is that the industry has been ignored in the Government’s push to involve itself in every individual’s and business’ communication in Australia. Not only are they dismantling the right to privacy, they want to silence anyone who challenges them, while at the same time expecting everyone to pay for the ‘privilege’. There should be no room for attacking transparency in Australia, but the Attorney-General’s Department seems willing to do this on the flimsy excuse provided.”

With the commencement of the mandatory data retention regime just around the corner, both Kmart[2] and David Jones[3] recently experienced online data breaches resulting in unauthorised access to customer details. These breaches raise serious concerns around the storage of individual’s data once the data retention regime is in operation. Internet service providers have already indicated that they would have no hesitation in storying the data overseas[4], but there is little information about security measures to prevent unauthorised access. With the stored data being capable of exposing individual’s day-to-day activities (as ABC reporter Will Ockenden’s social experiment demonstrated in August[5]), it is the perfect target for hackers wishing to access and abuse that data. The Government appears happy to use smoke and mirrors to cover this issue.