Thanks to new legislation passed through the Senate yesterday, law enforcement agencies can now snoop on your internet history via your ISP, but only in certain circumstances. How does it all work and should you be afraid of big brother?
It’s called the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011, and it modifies four other pieces of legislation — including the Telecommunications Act 1997 — to allow law enforcement agencies to peek into your data, but there’s a catch.
Agencies won’t be able to access your data unless they ask your ISP to start tracking you. They can’t do that unless you’re a suspected troublemaker who may have been dealing in child pornography, fraud or some other nefarious activity.
The other piece of good news is that police can’t access the data that the ISPs collect until they get a warrant, and data won’t be collected until the request is made by law enforcement.
So, are you concerned?