1984: Coming soon to 2006
Last week, Federal Parliament passed a law that allows the Government to read private emails, text messages and other stored communications without our knowledge. The power extends to innocent people, called B-parties, if they have been unlucky enough to communicate with someone suspected of a crime or of being a threat to national security.
The Government should sometimes be able to monitor the communications of innocent people. This may be necessary to protect the wider community where a suspect can only be tracked through another person. However, the law goes beyond what can be justified and undermines our privacy more than is needed
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This really annoys me. There hasn’t been a terrorist attack in a while now, and something like this isn’t going to stop terrorists anyway. Its a real invasion of privacy that doesn’t really seem to have any real reason as to why it’s being brought in
johnsee said,
April 4, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Someone posted this on /. and I thought it raised a few interesting points…
From the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law:
Second, in some circumstances, the government can use the information it collects even though that information is irrelevant to the original suspect. For example, if the government uncovers incriminating information from listening to a B-Party’s conversations, this can set off a chain reaction allowing the interception of the incriminated person’s communications or of anyone with whom they communicate.
The worst of it though, is the unseemly haste the government has used to rush this through parliament. Interested parties were given only 10 days to prepare submissions on the Bill, and the Senate Committee had only two weeks to review the submissions, hear evidence and prepare a report. They really badly want to read our private correspondence.
Anonymous said,
April 5, 2006 at 12:55 pm
i’ve been waiting for something like this to happen… george orwell was right., ‘big brother’ will have control over every aspect of our lives and we are all doomed. this is just the beginning!!
stix said,
April 6, 2006 at 7:17 pm
its not like this is new though
Chaff said,
April 6, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Well said Stix.
We all know that the government sucks and hates us, get over it or do something about it.
stix said,
April 6, 2006 at 10:37 pm
*rebels*
stix said,
April 7, 2006 at 2:32 pm
what do u think would happen if people sent txt or emails with stuff saying were gonna blow up such and such but they were joking would they get arrested or what happens if u say u really hate someone so much that you would kill them this is stupid how many people will be arrested on stuff like that??!? plus if terrorists communicate by written mail in the post will that be intercepted.
Thats is all.
grrr said,
April 9, 2006 at 1:46 am
hmm we are in a pickle then
Rhino Williams said,
April 23, 2006 at 3:10 pm
If you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to hide, and nobody will be interested in “spying” on you.
If you HAVE done something wrong, you should be arrested.
It’s as simple as that.
SpasticLoon said,
April 23, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Did you know that when skiing, men are much more likely to fall on their front side, and women are more likely to fall on their arse. No one knows why.