Privacy Is Not Dead

Andrew Doohan at Semper Quaerens offered these thouights on the Australian governmemt’s proposal to capture metadata from all Australian ISPs and thus every Australian inetrnet user. As I was unable to reblog the post by usual method, I offer it here duly credited.

The most condemning part of the current Federal Government’s proposed new metadata capturing and storage legislation is that they haven’t as yet made a case for why this gross invasion of the privacy of Australian citizens is warranted. If, as Chris Berg suggests, the best they can do is to have the head of the Australian Federal Police say “those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear” then have spectacularly failed to make their case.

The reality is that my privacy is not something the needs defending. Rather, it is an invasion of my privacy that requires defending and justification.

The attitude of the current Federal Government, aided and abetted to a large degree by the current Federal Opposition, is to trample all over the precious liberties and freedoms that they supposedly hold up as being defended. It is wrong. It is misguided. And is most definitely unAustralian.

Andrew offered further reference here: @chrisberg http://t.co/3KzGddewU8

My reply this outrageous proposal was thus:

Oh dear, oh dear! I have heard this rhetoric before. In the UK CCTV is absolutely everywhere, the “logic” used was – if you have nothing to hide, you should’nt be concerned. The result is the absolute proliferation of CCTV cameras in every aspect of UK life, on the streets, in shopping malls, public places, tourist venues, railway stations, bus stops, ferry boats – absolutely everywhere! The thing that has not been adequately explained to the British public is:

The need for such a comprehensive surveillance system,

What is being done with the massive amount of data collected, and

Why scant regard was given to the concerns of invasion of privacy to the British public

I see this Australian proposal as an infringement of my right to privacy, and I see the collection or capturing of metadata as requiring extensive explanation and justification. Rather than capture the metadata of suspected criminals, terrorists et al, let’s collect it from everyone. This just smacks of lazy policing by security services.

I guess I should just encrypt all data sent from my computer and/or use a VPN to disguise my IP address! But hang on a minute, I shouldn’t have to! As a law-abiding citizen my right to privacy should be ensured. No amount of government paranoia can remove my right to privacy, and goverment should not be exempt from their own privacy legislation. Tony Abbott will do as he pleases and be totally dismissive of public objection to this proposal, and lo and behold, he uses the same justification as did the British government when the CCTV network was initiated.