It's been 5 months since the introduction of Australia's meta data laws came into effect, and the general public's understanding of metadata remains vague, at best. The collection of data from every Australians internet interactions was once infamously described by then Prime Minister Tony Abbott as "the information on the front of the envelope."
It was an interesting turnaround for the LNP Government, given the law they enacted were practically the same as those introduced by former Attorney General Labor's Nicola Roxon in 2012. At the time Ms Roxon explained the intention behind the proposed reform was to allow law enforcement agencies to continue the investigation of crimes in light of new technology advances.
"It seems to be heading in precisely the wrong direction," former Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull said at the time.
While the Government has said metadata would be used only to source terror and crime related activities, the list of companies applying for approval to view metadata shows a large amount of non-judicial companies requesting access.
NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden rose to international prominence after releasing thousands of files showing the NSA was regularly using the information collected online under the US Patriot Act to "spy," on American internet usage.
A recent article by the Washington Post highlighted the use of a "sneak-and-peak," provision in the Patriot Act that was alleged to be used only in national security or terrorism activities, but was actually being used in narcotics cases, with the information being sent to various intelligence agencies like the FBI without applying any screens for privacy.
With Australia's metadata laws in their infancy, it isn't a large stretch of the imagination to believe eventually - if it's not happening already - the same situation will arise here.
What is metadata?
Beyond the Attorney General's inability to clearly articulate exactly the type of information to be retained by the laws, metadata is essentially the data about your data. An article from news.com.au in October 2015 explained metadata as follows:
"Metadata around a phone call would provide the information about who rang and for how long, but not what was talked about. It also includes nearly everything you do on the internet, including, whether you visited sites to illegally download, plus loads more, including:
- Every email you send and to whom, what time, where you sent it and the subject of it
- The location you took a photo, the setting you took the picture with and the camera model
- While not yet mandatory, some ISPs may record the IP address of the websites you visit, essentially you internet history.
It might seem like it doesn't give much away, but it's not hard to piece together the clues of the communication, such as someone calling a phone sex service for 21 minutes at 1 am."
Click here to read the article by Harry Tucker, New data retention laws being today, here's what you need to know. for further information explaining Australia's metadata laws.
At the time the metadata laws came into being in October 2015, Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunication company referred to the collection of metadata as a "honey pot for hackers," relating to the fact that many of the data storage centres will be locate offshore.
With the rise in the sophistication of cyber criminals across the world, the risk of the information being hacked, or used for fraudulent purposes is not a risk Australia can afford to ignore. The need to protect the security of valuable, highly confidential information, either in Australia or offshore, is one that needs to be addressed with the highest priority for Australian businesses.
Akolade's upcoming 5th Australian Fraud Summit, being held in Sydney May 24th - 26th 2016, at the Menzies Hotel examines this important issue with sessions covering technology enabled fraud and preventative measures from leading Australian organistations such as; ANZ Woolworths, and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,
Click the link for further information, or to register your place at Akolade's 5th Australian Fraud Summit.
Mike Cullen has recently returned to Akolade after a period as the
conference producer for one of Australia's leading economic think tanks. Mike
began working in the conference industry in 2007 after looking for a career
change from the high pressured world of inbound customer service.
Mike has
worked for some of the most well-known conference and media companies in the
B2B space and in his spare time is working on his first novel in a planned Epic
Fantasy trilogy. Mike’s first published work will be the short story Seeds of
Eden, in the Sproutlings Anthology scheduled for release in March 2016.
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