From little leaks, big leaks flow. The government’s confidential discussion paper on metadata has broken cover. The paper defines in detail what the government considers as metadata, and what it will be storing should its data retention plan get up in Parliament.
The leaked paper (PDF), courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald, outlines the contents of discussions currently being held between the Attorney-General’s department and Australia’s internet service providers and telcos.
When it comes to metadata, the AG’s department wants telcos to store a few things, including:
• present and past subscriber name
• address information
• 64-bit IMSI ID and other network identifiers
• financial/billing information
• account state and billing type
• upload/download volumes on mobile devices
• upload/download allowances on the plan
• phone number
• type of service used (network type, i.e. ADSL, 4G LTE)
• IMEI device identifiers
• location of devices used
The paper goes to great length, however, to specify that it seek to store destination IP addresses, which could later be translated into the web browsing histories of users.
[This] does not apply to or require the retention of destination web address identifiers, such as destination IP addresses or URLs. This exception is intended to ensure that providers of retail and wholesale internet access services are not required to engage in session logging. However, operators of such services remain obliged to retain network address allocation records (including Network Address Translation records) under category 1(b).
The paper also adds telcos would not be required to store GPS location data generated from A-GPS information passed over the network by customers:
Note: Location information contained in the content of communications, such as assisted GPS information passing over a service or network, is not telecommunications data and is not included in this data set.
Head over to the SMH and read the full paper.
The leak comes the same day as the head of Australia’s largest spy agency, ASIO, admitted that without warrantless access to metadata, intelligence operations would “come to a halt“.