It’s only the beginning: Metadata Retention laws and the Internet of Things
Main Article Content
Keywords
Telecommunications, Privacy, Security
Abstract
This article examines the implications of selected aspects of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015, which was passed by the Australian Parliament in March 2015. It shows how the new law has strengthened protections for privacy. However, focusing on the investigatory implications, it shows how the law provides a tactical advantage to investigators who pursue whistleblowers and investigative journalists. The article exposes an apparent discrepancy in the way ‘journalist’ is defined across different pieces of legislation. It argues that although legislators’ interest has been overwhelmingly focused on communications data, the explosion of data generated by the so-called Internet-of-Things (IoT) is as important or more. It shows how the sensors in selected IoT devices lead to a loss of user control and will enable non-stop, involuntary and ubiquitous monitoring of individuals. It suggests that the law will need to be amended further once legislators and investigators’ knowledge of the potential of IoT increases.
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References
AGD. (2012). Equipping Australia against emerging and evolving threats. Canberra, Australia: Attorney-General’s Department.
Brandis, G. (2015). Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates – Senate, 26 March 2015: 2519 (George Brandis, Senator).
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SSCEC. (2011). The adequacy of protections for the privacy of Australians online. Canberra, Australia: Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications.
Brandis, G. (2015). Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates – Senate, 26 March 2015: 2519 (George Brandis, Senator).
Brandis, G. & Turnbull, M. (2015, March 26). Data Retention Bill passed by Parliament. Joint Media Release by the Attorney-General and the Minister for Communications.
Dorling, P. (2015, March 17). Security laws bring us closer to the day when journalists will be jailed for reporting. Sydney Morning Herald.
Grubb, B. (2010, June 16). Inside Australia's data retention proposal. ZDNet. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com.au/inside-australia-s-data-retention-proposal-339303862.htm
Huston, G. (2015). Metadata Retention and the Internet. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, Vol 3, No 1.
Notra, S., Siddiqi, M., Habibi Gharakheili, H., Sivaraman, V. and Boreli, R. (2014) An Experimental Study of Security and Privacy Risks with Emerging Household Appliances, First International Workshop on Security and Privacy in Machine-to-Machine Communications (M2MSec), San Francisco, USA.
Sivaraman, V., Notra, S., Velushomaz, Boreli, R. (2015). Security and Privacy Evaluation of six consumer IoT devices. Available at Networks Research Group, NICTA, Sydney, Australia. http://www2.ee.unsw.edu.au/~vijay/publications.html
SSCEC. (2011). The adequacy of protections for the privacy of Australians online. Canberra, Australia: Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications.
Article Sidebar
Published
Sep 28, 2015
Article Details
How to Cite
Fernandes, C., & Sivaraman, V. (2015). It’s only the beginning: Metadata Retention laws and the Internet of Things. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 3(3), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v3n3.21
Issue
Section
Telecommunications
Copyright Telecommunications Association Inc.
Author Biographies
Clinton Fernandes, UNSW
Clinton Fernandes teaches at UNSW Canberra and is a researcher with the Australian Centre for Cyber Security. His research area is the field of national security, focusing on intelligence operations, protection of whistleblowers and confidentiality of journalists’ sources.Vijay Sivaraman, UNSW
Vijay Sivaraman received his B. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India, in 1994, his M.S. from North Carolina State University in 1996, and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2000. He has worked at Bell-Labs as a student Fellow, in a silicon valley start-up manufacturing optical switch-routers, and as a Senior Research Engineer at the CSIRO in Australia. He is now an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. His research interests include Optical Networking, packet switching and routing, network architectures, and sensor networks for the environment, healthcare and sports monitoring.
