Government agencies will not be given easier access to Australians’ phone and web data

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The government has backed down on a push to remove reporting obligations for access to Australians’ phone and web data just weeks after proposing a bill to abolish mandatory reporting by telecommunications companies.



Currently telcos are obliged to report to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) on the number of times they were asked by government agencies for users’ metadata. Guardian Australia reported that the government moved to abolish that obligation on “repeal day” last month in a legislative red tape reduction exercise.



But a spokesman for the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said keeping the obligations had been on the cards for weeks, despite it being part of repeal day.



He said the government wanted to keep the obligations “given subsequent announcements on [the mandatory retention of] metadata”.



Abolishing the obligation would have meant that telecommunications companies would not have to publicly reveal the total number of disclosures of Australians’ personal data, leaving only statistics compiled from government agencies.



The government says it is working on “putting a new scheme in place so there’s no duplication” in reporting.



“We will keep the status quo until a new solution can be found,” Turnbull’s spokesman said.



The communications minister’s office had defended removing the disclosure clause in October, when approached by Guardian Australia.



“We have removed a specific requirement to provide an annual report to the Acma on what instances of disclosure they have made. This is clearly a measure aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on telecommunications companies, as evidenced by the fact that it was canvassed in a deregulation discussion paper issued in April.”



The Greens say the move amounts to a backdown ahead of debate on a separate mandatory data retention bill.



“Turnbull’s legislation would kill off this disclosure, meaning Australians would no longer know how many times their data was accessed by law enforcement agencies,” Greens senator Scott Ludlam said.



“This disturbing removal of the disclosure requirements on telcos is clearly aimed at reducing transparency ahead of the Abbott government’s attempt to introduce highly unpopular mandatory data retention legislation.”



The mandatory detention legislation has gone to a parliamentary committee and will only be debated once the committee reports its findings. That is not expected to happen in this year’s allotted parliamentary sitting period.



Acma’s annual report shows more than 582,000 warrantless requests were made to telcos for users’ phone, location and web data in the last financial year. A report by the Attorney General’s Department (AGD) lists a much lower figure of 300,000 requests.



The department has previously played down the discrepancy: “The Acma report will include the larger figure of disclosures from industry; the AGD report will include the smaller number of authorisations from agencies.”