Australia’s Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011
Alerted by @JLLLOW, I read the bill text and explanatory memoranda at ParlInfo relating to the government’s Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011.
Having made a submission to the #NatSecInquiry, I was rather annoyed to see that this Bill would significantly weaken our existing protections from data harvesting by ASIO, and enable fishing expeditions from other Signatory Nations to the Convention on Cybercrime.
I have just sent the following email to the Senators for Queensland:
I’m writing to urge you to vote against the CybercrimeLegislation Amendment Bill 2011, which is scheduled for debate in the Senate tomorrow.
As crafted, the bill would
undermine our international efforts to remove the threat of the death penalty,
significantly weaken the protections we currently enjoy from intrusion by ASIO, ASIS or the AFP in our private lives by lowering the barrier of a qualifying Serious Offence from 7 to 3 years,
allow provision of data to another Convention signatory for minor civil matters which are not an offence in Australia,
create a FISA-like court, but without safeguards,
enable “what if” investigations from Convention signatories which do not have an Australian/UK-style independent judiciary system, significantly lowering the barriers
removes existing Mutual Assistance safeguards.
The proposed restrictions on how a receiving Signatory may useprovided data are unenforceable and rely on the honesty of thereceiving Signatory’s agency or agencies.
Finally, there is plenty of “intends to seek”-style language, which will enable ASIO and the AFP (whether on their own say-so, for a domestic warrant, or on behalf of a Signatory’s agency) to demand the capture and storage of data in a manner which is intrusive and unjustified.
Yours sincerely,
James C. McPherson