An investigation by the Commonwealth Ombudsman has concluded that an Australian Federal Police breach of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act during an attempt to identify the source of a journalist’s story stemmed in part from a lack of awareness of the rules governing access to telecommunications ‘metadata’.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is mulling an audit of the government’s Data Retention Industry Grants Program.
The most recent report on the use of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 revealed a startling array of organisations that employed the TIA Act to obtain warrant-free access to historical telecommunications data, such as call records.
Attorney-General George Brandis has not managed to assuage the concerns of a parliamentary committee that a system of warrants for police seeking journalists' ‘metadata’ is incompatible with Australia’s human rights obligations.
Civil liberties advocacy group Electronic Frontiers Australia has called on Attorney-General George Brandis to reject the majority of the organisations that have sought ongoing authorisation to access telecommunications data without a warrant.