Just when you think the government has reached the furthest reaches of absurdity with its policies regarding the internet comes news from Ben Grubb over at ZDNet that the best minds of the government want ISPs to log every website every Australian internet browser uses.
The Attorney-General’s department confirmed to ZDNet that they had begun talks with ISPs about introducing a data retention scheme akin to what was introduced in Europe back in 2006. Except instead of only logging connection times and keeping that data for between six and 24 months, the Australian government is looking at logging every website you visit, and keeping that information for a period of between five and ten years.
At this stage, the Government hasn’t made this scary new turn of events actual policy – it’s more like they’re testing the feasibility of such a scheme. But given how the internet filter has continued to march forward despite a mountain of logic and common sense, this new development is truly frightening for the future of this country.
[ZDNet via Lifehacker]
Andy
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 3:37 PMThis has to be a hoax. There is no way our government is this stupid…
James
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:09 PMI think this is a gross invasion of privacy. I would leave this country if it was put in place.
LucasF
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 9:28 PMI’d leave too. Back to New Zealand with me. Officially the most peaceful country on earth. Mainly because Conroy lives in Australia probabaly.
Anon
Saturday, June 12, 2010 at 1:15 PMThis is just adding to the list of ways that America is superior to this country. So far I’ve figured: Prices (for EVERYTHING), lower taxes, firecrackers being legal, unfiltered internet… I mean honestly, how are they going to pull the ‘protection from internet nasties’ (which was utter crap anyway) on this one?
Michael Harris
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:45 PMIf only it was a hoax. Mind you, after all the crap Conroy has pulled – would you really think he’d be smart enough to avoid this minefield…
Nope, of course not. Stepped in it, hook, line and sinker.
Gary Lim
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 3:40 PMWhy?! Really, WHY?!?!
With anyone who knows anything telling them the filter is a bad idea, why would they do something like this to us?
Art Nau
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 3:43 PMand the point of this will be ?
to protect us from what this time ?
Kieran
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 3:47 PMwhat the hell?
this government is trying *very* hard to get kicked out at the end of this term, isn’t it?
Shane
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:29 PMThey should be AND it should be made know that this is why.
The only problem is, we’ll end up with another government just as stupid
harryhatduck
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 3:48 PMThankfully democracy prevails and the liberals and greens will block anything absurd as this.
If K-Rudd even planned to introduce this he will definitely loose the next election.
Shane
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:30 PMThe big K should never be given another chance! If they get back it, they will see it as justification to push even harder on this front.
They should be shunted out AND told exactly why – don’t screw with our freedoms
Mitchell Ablett-Nelson
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 11:26 PMunfortunately the chances of the greens ever having much say is still very low. Also, the libs agree with rudd on much of his filter policy so we are screwed either way
steve
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 3:58 PMGo K-Rudd!!!!
i can’t wait to vote you and your homies out!
i’m all for change too brother! and that means YOU!
Dax
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:07 PMAnd the difference between this proposal and what Google logs about you now is what?
nsimpson
Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 2:11 PM9 1/2 years, and the ability to retroactively prosecute you for looking at something which is legal now but may become illegal in the future.
Jubbin Grewal
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:07 PMI’m not worried. We have a bunch of morons running the country now, even George Bush seems like a smarter leader.. so next election.. we’ll see a change.
MDolley
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:15 PM“It is possible that this has been the largest privacy breach in history across Western democracies.” – Senator Stephen Conroy in response to Google accessing public Wi-Fi data
“It is possible that this has been the largest privacy breach in history across Western democracies.” – MDolley in response to the introduction of the data retention plan
attila
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:19 PMSurely this will help them track down the origin of the scams coming through the portal though? Assuming the portal can even be tracked by such a scheme of course – my interdimensional networking knowledge is sketchy at best.
Jason
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 7:02 PMMost internet scams don’t come out of our country, maybe they should ask the Nigerian government to do this and leave us alone…
Glenn Taylor
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:41 PMGovernment: “Hi guys, we’re going to filter your internet, slow it down, AND record what sites you’ve visited… And we’re sure you’re going to think this is a good idea because you elected us in!”
I doubt KRUDD will be in office at the end of the year… but I guess even if it does, he’ll just stir the pot for 3 more years and still not get anything done.
Steve
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:46 PMMeh – if they do introduce it I will personally go on a murdurous rampage in a diaper.
Jamie Carl
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:55 PMSo it takes a court order, Federal Oversight and an ASIO registered technician to listen in on phone calls, but the Pimply Faced geeks at TPG will be able to ‘listen in’ on my website travels at will?
riiiiiiight. I don’t see this going very far. Do you think Australian politicians want THEIR browser history to become public record? I don’t think so.
Cpt. Pajama Shark
Monday, June 14, 2010 at 11:32 AMI’m assuming that they would also build in a clause that would say something along the lines of “If you are politician, you won’t be subject to this because your so important” “blah blah cause of the state secrets blah blah”
Des
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:06 PMHmm, I’m not so sure that if we see the back of Rudd that we that we’ll see the back of these ridiculous policies. Have the Libs made any statement on the net filter for instance? My gut instinct would be that they are in support of it, but I may be wrong.
Jack
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:12 PMwow! we are talking about a military state here! it better be a hoax. there have been revolutions for less then this.
winkypop
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:25 PMErrrm, would not a [cough] VPN make this proposal ineffective?
mitchboy999
Friday, August 27, 2010 at 11:30 PMThere are ways to get around it (VPN is probably the best way). The real pedophiles .etc (people who are doing illegal things) are going to get around it. They will be careful.
And no one even give me the bull sh**t about keeping their kids safe online because their parents should be doing somthing about it if they are so worried.
Another stupid plan just like the internet censorship plan when they want to ban porn (which is legal) and they even banned wikileaks (which is completly legal and appropriate for anyone)…
I’m moving to America or New Zealand in a few years when this kicks off. R.I.P Australia!
Leeyam
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:42 PMQuestion: What would you prefer between the filter and the log? What if this was the back-up plan instead of the filter?? ie, we’ll let you look at whatever you want, but you will be responsible for whatever you look up…
I see this as a fundamental shift in policy from censorship to supervision, and while they’re both open to abuse, I think that the supervisory option would have to be better: at least there’s opportunities for effective oversight, appeals through court etc, rather than the important decision being made by some closed tribunal or board appointed to choose what we do and don’t see…
Not saying it’s perfect or great, but it might just be the lesser of two evils??
Ian
Saturday, June 12, 2010 at 9:38 AMYou’ve got to be kidding!!! These are both the worst ideas, and I personally don’t want either of them. This is a bit like ‘is it better to be shot by a pistol or a rifle?’ – I don’t want either, thank you.
Zac
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:42 PMThe fact that they’ve even *suggested* this… scary.
Timmy Connor
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:57 PMISP’s already log the IP details of websites visited anyway (I work for one). These are needed for checking up on usage calculation problems as well as if something like a child porn case comes up. It’s really not that far from logging URL’s…. you can often workout what the person was visiting unless it was a shared dedicated server.
Note: I’m not saying this is a good thing, but just what already occurs.
The Flash
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 7:52 PMTime to start a Data Warehouse…
Dale Williams
Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 7:26 PMQuickly Flash, though you may have more luck storing Data on a Hard Drive.
Dion Dais
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 8:43 PMomg, will parents have access to these record :s lol cant be good if so
Daniel
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 9:52 PMThis country is turning into China or Iran because of this crazy government with a telecommunications minister that has no technical knowledge and only idiotic ideas. If this law was put in place, I think people will start leaving the country. It’s actually a real worry the direction we are heading. I think it is more serious than many people think.
Sam
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 11:35 PMDion – it’s people like you that these filterings and whatever exist for.
This whole thing is very extreme though. I agree with an above posting that this idea would probably be backed by the Libs, in case Krudd was knocked out. This topic has at least got to be debated – it’s something we just have to acknowledge as the internet becomes increasingly more intertwined in our lives. I’m not saying it’s the right move, but at least the government is acknowledging it. Wouldn’t we hate on the government if it released statistics about say, porn and how easily children can access it, but it did nothing? It’s a pretty tricky situation.
ray
Saturday, June 12, 2010 at 12:22 AMSoon there will be a staggering number of Australians being in having their computers logged, up to 20,000,000 — uh — can regularly be getting logged by these policies and scams, that come through the portal
Robert
Saturday, June 12, 2010 at 1:20 AMCrap, I am a stumbleupon addict literally tens of thousands of clicks (129 thousand and counting, ‘ack’), now whose fault is it which sites I end up visiting.