http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/youve-got-mail-asio-wants-to-read-it-all... Youbve got mail. ASIO wants to read it. All of it. by Andrew Baker 19 Jul 06:00am Filed under: Asio, Asis, Cyberspace, Intelligence, Internet, Security, Terrorism 200 comments The government wants to be your Facebook friend, follow you on Twitter, read your emails and text messages, and know which websites you visit. It then wants to file all that information for up to two years in case you are found to be a terrorist, crime lord or paedophile. The government also wants your computer passwords and might even send you to jail if you refuse. Creepy. Time to unfriend the government. These changes are under consideration by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and if implemented, will substantially increase the powers the intelligence community has to spy on Australians in the name of national security. Many of the proposed changes are of dubious value and a direct attack on the civil liberties of all Australians. Increased powers to intercept phone calls, emails and other communications are just the start of the governmentbs assault on basic freedoms. For example, the attorney-general may soon have the power to modify warrants after they have been issued, and the duration of search warrants may be doubled from 90 days to six months. One of the more disturbing changes is the proposed b authorised intelligence operations schemeb to b provide ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organisation] officers and human sources with protection from criminal and civil liability for certain conduct in the course of authorised intelligence operations.b So when ASIO officers (or their sources) break the law, they are less likely to be sent to jail. The changes will also clarify that ASIO officers can not only use b reasonable forceb to kick down your door, but also after they have kicked it down and are ferreting through your home. Another proposal is to give Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) the power to provide self-defence and weapons training to people who cooperate with ASIS. That power will come in handy when we need to arm an insurgency overseas. National security has also become the latest excuse for government to impose more red tape on private businesses, and these changes do not disappoint. One proposal is a new requirement for the telecommunications sector to commercial in-confidence information about significant business and procurement decisions, and about the design of communications networks. Telecommunications providers would also be obligated to protect their networks from bunauthorised interference,b and if they fail, government will be able to invoke its proposed new powers to b mitigate and remediate security risks with the costs to be borne by providers.b Businesses will also be required to keep your data for up to two years at their own cost. Many telecommunications companies delete the data to save money and lower costs because storing large amounts of data can be expensive. If they are required to keep the data, expect your phone bills to increase. Some of these changes will be backed up with the threat of criminal prosecution for disobedience. People could go to jail for refusing to hand over passwords, not assisting in the decryption of communications, or failing to provide commercial in-confidence information to the government. While the government will make the usual assurances about maintaining your privacy, the lure of accessing personal details is often too tempting for some public servants (and thatbs what intelligence officers are). Over the past few years, hundreds of Centrelink employees have been caught accessing client information without authorisation, and have been sacked, forced to resign, demoted or fined for snooping through the personal information of their fellow Australians. And these are just the instances we know about. The scary thing is that our intelligence agencies are not subject to the same level of probity or public accountability as Centrelink. We can never be certain that justice will be served as long as intelligence officers break the very same laws that are supposed to protect our privacy. This, of course, assumes the officers are caught in the first place. The government has trotted out the usual scare words (terrorism, paedophilia and organised crime) to justify the erosion of civil liberties, the expansion of the nanny state, the imposition of miles of red tape, and the increase in the overall cost of living. But the growing desire of governments to monitor, filter and organise what we can say and write in newspapers, watch on TV, and read on the internet is the true threat to our freedom. It is time for Australians to bde-friendb their government and start fighting its growth. Recognising that government is a greater threat to individual freedom than that posed by any terrorist b and opposing laws that expand the power of Australiabs surveillance state b is a good start.