Politics

The Government’s Internet security plan to store the web history of all Australians for up to two years has been put on the backburner until after next year’s election — even though submissions have only just closed for the Inquiry into reform of national security legislation.

It is likely that the Inquiry will agree to the push for expanded powers, and that legislative reforms will be enacted very early in the term of our next government, whether Labor or Liberal. The Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 was passed by the Senate this week. This occurred before the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety got the chance to do its work and before the public was able to give evidence.

The haste to pass legislation before appropriate public and parliamentary debate reflects an international trend towards the enactment of harmonised laws to the detriment of national sovereignty — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A shadowy private security company with deep links to the CIA — and a parent company awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in Australian government transport contracts — is operating a pervasive global surveillance and facial recognition network on behalf of law enforcement.

Over the past few days the internet has been abuzz with revelations regarding TrapWire, an analytical system that integrates with surveillance cameras to capture photographs or video evidence of “suspicious activity”.

The TrapWire story began late last week, when emails from a private intelligence company, Stratfor — originally released as part of WikiLeaks’s Global Intelligence Files in February — appeared online.

The emails and other documentation revealed TrapWire is installed in some of the western world’s most sensitive locations — including the White House, 10 Downing Street, New Scotland Yard, the London Stock Exchange and five hundred locations in the New York subway system. Trapwire is also installed in many Las Vegas casinos — via redwolf.newsvine.com

It’s not often you hear words of common sense emanating from Federal Attorneys-General with relation to technological issues — normally they’re far more interested in holding secret Internet piracy meetings without consumer representation, developing plans to monitor all Australian communications, avoiding pesky Freedom of Information requests; you know, the usual humdrum day to day stuff.

But according to the Sydney Morning Herald, the current AG Nicola Roxon may have come to see the light on the unpopularity of her department’s current wide-reaching surveillance package currently before the Federal Parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. The newspaper reports (we recommend you click here for the full article):

A controversial internet security plan to store the web history of all Australians for up to two years has been stalled by the federal government until after the next election — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Any proposal by the government to increase its own power should be treated with scepticism.

Double that scepticism when the government is vague about why it needs that extra power. Double again when those powers are in the area of law and order. And double again every time the words national security are used.

So scepticism — aggressive, hostile scepticism, bordering on kneejerk reaction — should be our default position when evaluating the long list of new security powers the Federal Government would like to deal with emerging and evolving threats — via redwolf.newsvine.com

When ACTA was formally signed by most participants in October 2011 in Tokyo, few would have anticipated that less than a year later, the treaty would face massive public protests and abandonment by leading countries. But with tens of thousands taking to the streets in Europe earlier this year, ACTA became the poster child for secretive, one-sided IP agreements that do not reflect the views and hopes of the broader public. This morning, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly against the agreement, effectively killing ACTA within the EU. The vote was 478 against, 39 in favour, with 165 abstentions  This is a remarkable development that was virtually unthinkable even a year ago. Much credit goes to the thousands of Europeans who spoke out against ACTA and to the Members of the European Parliament who withstood enormous political pressure to vote against the deal — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A US court has ordered Twitter to release old messages and details about a user arrested during an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York.

The micro-blogging firm contested the subpoena, saying the tweets were owned by users rather than the company.

But a judge said defendant Malcolm Harris’ privacy would not be violated if the material was handed over.

Earlier, the American Civil Liberties Union commended Twitter for defending free speech rights.

If you post a tweet, just like if you scream it out the window, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, Judge Matthew Sciarrino wrote in his decision.

Nevertheless, the judge said he would personally review the information and would only release the relevant sections to prosecution and defence lawyers — via redwolf.newsvine.com