Protect Us, but Respect Us!

These days, we live so much of our lives online. With every click and every key stroke we reveal more and more about ourselves. We upload private information like photos and financial records. We search websites and conduct intimate conversations with family and friends. We expect it to be private, but it may not be for long. Right now, the Government is considering radical changes to Australia's surveillance and intelligence laws. Of course authorities should be given the powers they need to protect us all, but what's being considered goes much further than that. Recently the Government has released a discussion paper with a lot of complex proposals. Many are reasonable, but some are not. How would you feel knowing internet providers, web sites, social networks & search engines were required by law to store every message you send, every website you visit, every conversation you have, every product you buy or places you visit for 2 years? And if ASIO wants to take a look at that data it can - and that is just the beginning. ASIO could demand your passwords to access your data, on your computer or the websites you use, like internet banking, eBay or Facebook. If you refuse you could go to jail. ASIO would also be given the power to remotely control your computer and legally modify, delete or even add files. There could be things on your computer you never put there. And they could access your computer even if they knew you had never committed a crime. Under the proposed laws ASIO could access your computer - without a warrant against you - if your computer somehow had contact with someone they were investigating. You may have used the same WiFi network or been infected with the same computer virus or visited the same website as a suspect. That would be enough. This is no nightmare scenario. This could be the law. This is no nightmare scenario. This could be the law. And it is has to be asked, can you trust these private corporations to safely store all of this staggeringly detailed data about you - on behalf of the Government? In the last year alone criminal hackers have stolen personal and financial data from Visa, Mastercard, Sony, LinkedIn, Yahoo and Vodafone. Even the FBI has been hacked. Does the Australian Government really stand a chance of keeping all our data safe? The Government needs to protect us, but it also needs to respect us.