Issues Raised Over How Australian Law Enforcement Access Data

Concerns have been raised over how Australian law enforcement and integrity agencies access telecommunications data and store information. Authorities must comply with strict safeguards over how the data is obtained under the Telecommunications Interception and Access Act. The Commonwealth Ombudsman reviewed how 21 agencies use their powers and found Victoria Police was the “most prolific” agency to authorise employees to access data for purposes not covered by the law. “We identified a high number of authorisations that did not demonstrate that the access to data was for enforcing the criminal law or locating a missing person,” the Covert Electronic Surveillance report stated....