EFA will shortly make a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill 2009 (Cth).
We previously made a submission to the Attorney-General’s Department on the exposure draft of this Bill. We are happy to say that our concerns were addressed and that the new Bill appears to provide an appropriately limited exception for permissible interception of telecommunications for network security purposes. We commend the Attorney-General’s Department on achieving a workable legislative exception to the prohibition on interception of telecommunications that allows network operators to perform legitimate network protection duties without unduly burdening the privacy of end users.
There are a few minor issues we would like to see clarified in the Bill – particularly relating to the obligation to destroy intercepted communications and the interception of audiovisual content.
You can view our submission here (500KB PDF). Other submissions will appear on the Committee’s website in due course.