The Government’s data retention laws kick in today, which compel telcos to store metadata generated by their customers for a period of two years. At least, it’s meant to start today: a new report has emerged saying that many of the telcos aren’t prepared for the scheme, citing confusion over what they should actually be storing in the first place.
The Communications Alliance sent an anonymous survey to Australian ISPs, and found that a whopping 84 per cent say they aren’t ready to start collecting metadata from today, according to the ABC.
On top of that, 66 per cent of ISPs found that they still don’t know what they need to be collecting.
And it appears that life would be no better for these ISPs if they actually did understand the legislation: only 10 per cent of those that have got their act together and submitted their data retention implementation paperwork to the Attorney General’s department have had their plans approved.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you and your precious metadata are off the hook: the legislation has an automatic grace period built in, and will have until April 2017 to get their affairs in order.
Hooooo boy. [ABC]