- Australian law enforcement and government agencies have sharply increased their access without warrant to vast quantities of private telephone and internet data, prompting new calls for tighter controls on surveillance powers.
Government agencies accessed private telecommunications data and internet logs more than 300,000 times during criminal and revenue investigations in 2011-12, a 20% increase on the level of surveillance activity in the year before.
Figures from the federal Attorney-General’s Department show that on average, these agencies obtained private data from telecommunications and internet service providers 5800 times every week.
The data available to government agencies under federal law includes phone and internet account information, outwards and inwards call details, phone and internet access location data, and details of Internet Protocol addresses visited (though not the actual content of communications).
Data access is authorised by senior police officers or officials, rather than by a judicial warrant.
New South Wales Police were the biggest users of telecommunications data, with 103,824 access authorisations in 2011-12. Victoria Police accessed data 67, 173 times in the same period, while the Australian Federal Police did so 23,001 times.
Victoria Police has said that the increased data access could be attributed to investigator knowledge becoming more widely known, technology changes and auto processing that has simplified the process.
Federal government agencies using telecommunications data include the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the Australian Taxation Office, numerous government departments, Medicare, Centrelink, and Australia Post.
It is also used by all state police and anti-corruption bodies and a growing number of state government departments and agencies, including the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, the Victorian Taxi Directorate and WorkSafe Victoria.
Data is also accessed by the RSPCA in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, and by local governments, including Wyndham City Council in Melbourne’s west. The RSPCA has investigative powers in respect of animal cruelty.
Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam said the increase in access authorisations demonstrated the current data access regime was out of control and amounted to the framework of a surveillance state.
Statistics for access by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation are security classified and not published.
The federal government’s proposals for a further expansion of law enforcement access to telecommunications data, including a minimum two-year data retention standard for phone and internet providers, have generated public debate and controversy.
However, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon did not issue any media release to accompany her department’s report, which was tabled in Parliament without debate on Thursday, the final parliamentary sitting day for the year.
A spokesperson for Ms Roxon said “these new statistics show telephone interception and surveillance powers are playing an even greater role for police so they can successfully pursue kidnappers, murders and organised criminals”.
However, the latest statistics also show a 7.7% jump in the number of telecommunication interception warrants issued to law enforcement agencies, with 3755 phone taps being authorised in 2011-12 - Philip Dorling
