A US study has delivered an unwelcome finding about Australian internet speeds, finding that they are well behind the international pack.

One engineering expert said the nation would continue to tumble down in world rankings if the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) continues in its current form.

The State of the Internet Report from cloud service provider Akamai ranks Australia 44th for average connection speed.

The US-based company produces the quarterly report looking at connection speeds and broadband adoption around the world.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-12/australian-internet-speeds-rank-44th-in-the-world/6012570

‘A good analogy is asking a library to keep a history on their systems of who borrowed a book. [The library] don't care. They want to know who HAS a book; but that information is only required until it’s returned. Data retention would force them to keep that info for two years.’

The source said that even under the existing regime, he never saw a request for metadata from law enforcement denied on the basis of legitimacy—only on cost. It would be simple, he said, for a law enforcement officer to use the system to check up on their ex girlfriend, for example.

‘No one would pick it up because there is no detail. It's the process that is more decaying than the legislation.’

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/downloadthisshow/6145722

see toon at top...

Proposed anti-terrorist data retention laws are driven by "deflection politics", according to South Australia's Council for Civil Liberties (SACCL).

The Federal Government wants to force telecommunications companies to keep metadata for two years to beef-up the powers of law enforcement agencies such as ASIO as part of the fight against "home-grown terrorism".

Prime Minister Tony Abbott claimed there would be an "explosion in unsolved crimes" if the government's proposed legislation did not pass Parliament.

But barrister and SACCL spokeswoman Claire O'Connor said law enforcement authorities already had enough powers.

"Police can get warrants for searching," she said.

"They can have a listening devices application. They can check your phone. They can check your computer.

"All those things can happen already."

Ms O'Connor said every person in the community would consider themselves entitled to privacy when they closed their door, unless they were doing something criminal.

She said if Mr Abbott's comments were true, there would be an explosion of crime that was not being captured by statistics.

"It creates an impression in the community that there's something evil going on that we're not getting a handle on," Ms O'Connor said.

"It's deflection politics. The crime rate's gone down the last 15 years."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-22/data-retention-laws-are-deflection-politics-from-real-issues/6191194

A powerful parliamentary committee scrutinising new laws that will require all Australians' email, telephone and internet records to be stored for two years will recommend more oversight and an altering of the legislation so that the attorney-general is made less powerful in changing the regime at any time.

But a major point of contention among media groups including Fairfax Media and News Corp Australia – access to journalists' phone and internet records without a warrant when uncovering sources in leak investigations – is understood to remain, with the committee making no recommendations on this.

If the issue remains without government intervention, it's likely crossbenchers and Labor will attempt to put forward amendments that require warrants for this type of person's data. But this may only happen after the bill is passed, media reports on Thursday night said.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) has been scrutinising the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 since December, holding a number of public hearings where it heard from civil liberties, privacy, media and lawyer groups that the laws needed to change or be scrapped. Law-enforcement and intelligence agencies also attended, but said they believed the legislation was sound and therefore did not need to be altered.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/george-brandis-metadata-power-should-be-weakened-powerful-intelligence-committee-recommends-20150226-13po5h.html

Those who do not want their metadata to be colonoscopied should stick to exchanging brown paper bags on park benches aka former spies before they all got electronized. By analysing the metadata, our spying agencies are likely to find no more than cesspools of bad jokes (mostly the same ones), smelly dirty linen (including that of families fighting over inheritance) and nothing more than Joe Blow calling his wife on the mobile-blower to tell her the trains are running late as usual, while he is at the pub with his mates drinking some brown ales...

It is well known that people who do not want to be traced use bicycle-clips, use public transport or live under a bridge...

When the USA used its full might of 24 spying agencies, 275 spy government satellites, 88 private spy satellites, with a plethora of generals at the head of all this, they gathered so much shit (terabytes of irrelevant info every seconds) that they knew they had to concoct the result to prove that "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction", when they knew he did not have any... The CIA has since found some "cache" of old clapped-out bombs with remnants of sarin gas in them — bombs that not even the bravest of the crazies would touch since they were so rusted, they could not be moved without creating a massive tragedy...

The new chair of the Australian Press Council, Professor David Weisbrot, has condemned the Abbott government’s data retention bill as “far too intrusive” and warned the proposed law would crush investigative journalism.

The incoming chair said he plans to take a strong stand against the proposed legislation in particular and press freedom in general as he steps into the role occupied by Professor Julian Disney for five years.

“I’m very strongly opposed to the current proposals and I strongly hope that they will change,” Weisbrot told Guardian Australia in the first week in his new role.

“I am opposed to it as a private citizen. I think it’s far too intrusive and really changes the relationship between government, policing and the individual in a way that I don’t think we’ve fully worked out as a society.

“I think it goes well beyond the traditional social contract. It may be that we are willing to give up rights and freedoms for the added protection but I haven’t really been convinced yet the benefits will outweigh the obvious detriments.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/09/data-retention-bill-far-too-intrusive-says-new-press-council-chair-david-weisbrot

A coalition of high-powered chiefs from major Australian internet and phone companies demanded in a letter on Monday that the Abbott government outline how much money it is going to give telcos to pay for the creation of its controversial metadata retention regime.

"Industry is deeply concerned that the government appears to want to push the data retention legislation into law before it clarifies what its promised contribution will be to the costs of the scheme" 

The government has so far refused to say exactly how much it is willing to contribute to the scheme — which would see all Australians' internet and phone metadata stored for two years if legislated — prompting the telecommunications industry to say consumers' internet costs could potentially go up if they are not compensated.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/telco-chiefs-ramp-up-pressure-over-cost-of-metadata-retention-amid-silence-from-ministers-20150316-1m0260.html

Police have confirmed they have accessed journalists' communications records to investigate leaks despite the Abbott government's insistence that journalists are not the target of its new data storage laws.

After the Abbott government relented and agreed to give added protection to journalists under its controversial "data retention" laws, Attorney-General George Brandis insisted the laws were aimed at terrorists, paedophiles and organised criminals, not journalists.

He said Labor's demand that police must get a warrant to access journalists' communications "metadata" – such as the time and origin of phone calls they receive – for any investigation into journalists' sources was unnecessary. He said the government was agreeing only to win Labor's support for the reforms in the Senate.

"Media organisations are not the target of this law. The targets of this law are criminals and paedophiles and terrorists," Senator Brandis told ABC radio on Tuesday morning.

But Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin acknowledged in a statement that police had sought authorisations to access journalists' metadata while investigating leaks, though he stressed this was "rare".

Mr Colvin hit back at claims by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance – the union that represents journalists – that the AFP had "been repeatedly asked to hunt down journalists' sources by accessing journalists' metadata" and had done so.

The MEAA said in a statement on Monday that the AFP had admitted this in a meeting last week to discuss journalists' concerns about the laws, which will compel phone and internet companies to keep such "metadata" as the time, origin and destination of phone calls and other communications, for at least two years.

The union said the laws would "encourage at least 20 government agencies to go trawling through journalists' metadata".

But Mr Colvin said this was "inaccurate and a distortion of the comments made".

He said in the past 18 months, the AFP had received 13 referrals relating to unauthorised leaks of Commonwealth information – which is a breach of the Crimes Act with a penalty of up to two years' jail.

He said there was no need to access the journalists' metadata in the "overwhelming majority" of these cases.

"AFP requests for accessing a journalist's metadata are rare," Mr Colvin said.

The data retention laws are set to pass with Labor's support after Prime Minister Tony Abbott this week agreed to Labor's demand that police and government agencies be forced to get a warrant if they are requesting metadata in order to establish the identity of the source of a leak.

Normally, agencies do not need a warrant to access metadata, only internal authorisation.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/probes-of-journalists-communications-records-rare-police-say-20150317-1m1g9d.html

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The Labor party should not support this concoction of crap... but as usual, the morons in that lesser party of lesser deceivers get sucked in by the power of snooping on journos' investigations... or by going to war under fake pretences... The fact is that there would be about 1 part per terallion (1,000 billion) of "useful" information in the metadata...

This crummy idea, of course, is coming from ignorant people who dispute that 97 per cent (100 %) of global warming is coming from our emissions of CO2... THEY ARE A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITICAL IDIOTS... 

Throw Baird out. He is one of them ratbags, with a toothpaste commercial smile on his face. 

The federal government agreed to a warrant being required for access to journalists’ metadata, rather than all citizens’ metadata, because journalists were “a special case” and the line “had to be drawn somewhere”, the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said.

As Labor and Coalition MPs began feeling a backlash against the new data retention laws, which passed the house of representatives on Thursday, Turnbull told Guardian Australia he believed the provisions were being “misunderstood”.

“This is an improvement on the status quo. Agencies can access this data now. We are putting in place more protections and restricting the number of agencies that can gain access,” he said.

The government was forced to agree to the appointment of security-cleared lawyers to argue the public interest case before judges or the attorney general as part of any decision to allow a gov... 

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/19/malcolm-turnbull-says-access-to-journalists-metatdata-a-special-case

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May be they should also place microphones in confessionals, urinals and under leaky taps in your bathroom... Idiots. WHAT IS A SPECIAL CASE to get a warrant to get at a journalist that the government does not like? Jounos? You can start trembling in your shoes... No more "unauthorised" leaks... Now the minister of propaganda will make sure you still get hit on the head... Idiots... Pollies are idiots...

 Controversial data storage legislation sought by Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition government was given approval on Saturday by her junior partner, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), despite some members' data privacy concerns.

Delegates at a SPD convention in Berlin voted 124 in favor and 88 against after SPD party chairman Sigmar Gabriel, who also serves as German economics minister and vice chancellor, argued for adoption of legislation drafted by Justice Minister Heiko Maas, also of the SPD (pictured left with Gabriel).

Seven delegates abstained.

Gabriel, whose SPD leadership was tested by the vote, argued: "There is no freedom without security, and there is no security without freedom."

read more: http://www.dw.de/germanys-spd-approves-data-retention/a-18529141

Completely cuckoo clock... The line that "freedom and security can only be found in prison" has never sounded truer...

Telecommunications companies are calling for "urgent clarity" on the distribution of government funds to help them collect and keep customer information for national security purposes.

• Telcos required to keep data from October 13
• $131m allocated in 2015 federal budget
• Representative body says no information on money allocation yet
• Telcos lodging, working on implementation plans

Service providers are required to start keeping information from October 13 under the Federal Government's compulsory data retention scheme.

This year's federal budget allocated $131 million over three years to help telcos meet some of the cost of complying with the scheme.

But the industry's main representative body said over four months later it was "very disappointing" there was not more information on how that money would be divided between hundreds of service providers.

Key points:

• Apple rejects court order to help FBI investigate shooter's phone
• CEO says request 'threatens the security' of Apple customers
• FBI investigating possible communication between shooters and Islamic State
• In a previous case, Apple said it was 'impossible' to unlock devices using their new operating system

(Gus can confirm this last point, having had to use his personal imagination and a deep breath to kick a door open, as someone had left the SECURITY GRILL OPENED)

Apple's chief executive Tim Cook released a statement announcing the company would contest a court order to help the FBI break into a phone recovered from Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters.

The company was ordered to provide "reasonable technical assistance" to investigators seeking to unlock the data on Farook's iPhone 5C.

Mr Cook argues the FBI's demand threatens the security of Apple's customers but he has already been criticised by a presidential candidate and New York's police chief for the taking the stance.

The company's refusal to cooperate with the FBI has been criticised by a cast of characters including New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and presidential candidate Donald Trump who suggests unlocking the iPhone is "common sense".

"We have to be very careful, we have to be very vigilant, but to think that Apple won't allow us to get into her cell phone — who do they think they are? Now we have to open it up," Mr Trump said.

Now Senator Brandis has joined the calls for Apple to comply, saying all companies in the tech sector should cooperate with investigations into serious crime.

"We would expect, as in Australia, that all orders of courts should be obeyed by any party which is the subject of a lawful order by a court," he told ABC correspondent Michael Vincent.

Senator Brandis said while particular facts of this case were not relevant to Australia, the situation illustrated we were in a time "when encryption of data is becoming almost ubiquitous and vast quantities of data which would previously have been accessible by warrant to law enforcement agencies inaccessible".

"I think it shows how important it is that ISPs do cooperate with law enforcement agencies in facilitating and cooperating with proper investigations into serious crime," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-18/george-brandis-says-apple-should-comply-with-fbi-requests/7180418

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Here our Brandis pontificates with his two bob's worth. I am sure that if someone dig deep enough, one would find him "challengin'" a court order of sorts — say like him having to give his diary to scrutiny. His excuse? It would take too long for someone to "redact sensitive information" and his diary being investigated would not be in the "national interest". Rubbish says the court, the diary should be made available to see who Brandis has been sleeping with and whom was he doing favours for.

One should know that opening some safes is impossible unless one uses dynamite. The bank notes and the data would be cactus. 

So the NSA, despite its billion dollars budget, has no way to have the list of numbers called by the terrorists by looking up the phone record? They should take a leaf out of our chief Brandis with his metadata collection as described in the toon at top.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is backing the FBI in its standoff with Apple over unlocking an iPhone in the probe of last year's deadly San Bernardino attacks, the Financial Times reports.

Breaking ranks with Silicon Valley companies who support Apple in its refusal to hack the phone of one of the attackers, Mr Gates said technology companies should be forced to co-operate with law enforcement in terrorism investigations, the paper said.

Mr Gates disagreed with Apple chief Tim Cook's claim that the government was looking for a "back door" into phones and that compliance would set a wider precedent, it said.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-24/bill-gates-backs-fbi-in-iphone-spat3a-report/7194542

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Don't believe that there is any morality in Gates support of the FBI... It's just good old fashioned business. Should Apple be able to break-in that phone for the FBI would mean a loss of confidence of apple customers in Apple. The winner? Microsoft — which to say the least needs an array of anti-virus protections and is quite feeble on security...