I have bad but nonetheless unsurprising news for you, Sunfish: CASA and other agencies have been accessing telecommunications data about us, without warrant, for a couple of years now. Google “Metadata requests top 350,000”.
This from a submission by Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security review of the mandatory data retention regime:
25.
The OAIC is aware of reported instances of certain bodies not permitted to access telecommunications data under the TIA Act, including federal, state and local agencies, requesting access to data under provisions of the Telecommunications Act.[37]This matter has been raised previously during the Committee’s hearings on the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018.[38]We understand that generally, these bodies have relied on alternate legislative provisions, namely, ss 280(1)(b) and s 313 of the Telecommunications Act, which:
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allow the ‘disclosure or use of information of a document if… the disclosure or use is required or authorised by or under law’, thereby allowing agencies to use their own powers to seek access to such data, and
- require carriers, ‘carriage service providers’ and carriage service intermediaries to ‘give officers and authorities of the Commonwealth and of the States and Territories such help as is reasonably necessary’ for law enforcement purposes.
Huge loopholes through which safety crusaders have been easily driving bullock wagons.