Sick of not knowing the metadata your telco is forking over to Aussie spooks? Telstra wants to demystify it for you by allowing you to access exactly what it hands over to the feds.
The data the telco will give you is exactly the same as the metadata it gives law enforcement agencies following a "lawful request without a warrant".
Telstra hopes that by making this data available, it will give customers a "clearer picture of the data [it] provides" law enforcement agencies.
Here's exactly what Telstra specified in its press release, issued this morning:
Metadata is the data generated when you use a telecommunications service – information such as the number you called, when you called and how long you spoke for. It does not include the content of a communication, such as the detail of what you said or wrote in an email or SMS.
You'll be able to request the data from April 1, but you won't be getting it for free. It'll cost you $25 to access your "simple" data, while "detailed requests" will carry an hourly rate depending on how long it takes the telco to put it together.
Given that Telstra has had some pretty serious data breaches in the past (like this, this and this), so hopefully it can keep a service like this on lock-down from the bad guys. Or, you know, themselves.
