On Tuesday 13th of October the Australian communications surveillance system comes into effect. Apparently, privacy will end for all Australians. Contrary to this view, I believe Australians are smart enough to opt out. There is no way the Australian government can stop the use of VPNs, nor the resetting of a modem to Google's 8080. The government does not have jurisdiction over Google, i.e., it cannot ban it!
This data, though extremely large, will always be incomplete and a waste of money. Anybody who intends to do something "underhanded" will obviously avoid the system. . Furthermore, what about Australians who have their websites on servers in other countries? This information is outside of the local loop. You can also create a site on oversees servers. Some users will choose to do nothing and allow their information to be collected, however.
Abuse of power will happen from the start. Uncontrolled bodies like the Australian Federal Police as with all national forces do questionable things. They always go outside of their legislated boundaries. State police will treat the data as their own little honey pot as well.
I keep all of my personal email on overseas services that I can access at places like libraries. There is no record of this email on my computer. This isn't smart: it is common sense. I have nothing to hide but I like to keep things private. Gmail and Yahoo are exempt. Obviously, I will use Tor browser a lot more. My "critical" online activity will be hidden from the Australian government.
Don't worry! Carriers have the choice whether to store destination IP addresses (this is your browsing history). Because it will be a significant extra cost, none of them will do this unless it is the only way to record metadata. Even then, the government cannot force telcos to handover IP data. Moreover, getting IP addresses will not identify particular websites visited on a server.
◆ Technology by Ty Buchanan ◆
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