Internet Australia chief Laurie Patton has started 2017 in much the same way he ended 2016, with a call on the Federal Government to institute a new parliamentary inquiry into the Data Retention Act.
Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 programme, Patton says IA wants a fresh inquiry into the entire scheme, noting that he had told the original inquiry by the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Intelligence and Security that the legislation was "fundamentally flawed" and had clearly been drafted by lawyers who don't understand how the Internet actually works.
"It is a mess," Patton told the ABC. "The only way out of it now is to go back to the beginning, back to the parliamentary inquiry that looked into it in the first place and get them to run the ruler over it."
According to Patton, IA is particularly concerned about the privacy implications if the scheme is expanded to include civil matters.
“This takes us into uncharted waters when it comes to using communications technology and personal data in court cases involving private individuals and which have nothing necessarily to do with criminality.”
Noting that there is little information coming from the Government in relation to the proposed expansion of the scheme, Patton says, “It’s concerning because we don’t know who’s after it and why”.
IA has long been critical of the data retention scheme, previously pointing out that the legislation was passed nearly two years ago on the grounds of an urgent need to combat terrorism. “It hasn’t even come into effect and yet the Attorney-General’s Department apparently wants to see it expanded”.
Under the Data Retention Act, ISP’s are required to have systems in place by April 2017 to retain their customers’ metadata for a two-year period.
But, according to IA, only a minority of ISP’s will be compliant and this makes the whole scheme of “dubious benefit for its stated purpose of combating terrorism”.
Patton says the Attorney General’s Department received applications from 210 ISP‘s seeking funding to help them meet the costs of compliance, of which 180 were approved – but industry estimates of the total number of Australian ISP’s ranges from 250 to more than 400.