Policy Observatory
Australia on verge of passing new data retention bill
On March 19, the Australian House of Representatives passed a new data retention bill. The bill — formally called the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 — requires companies providing telecommunications services in Australia to keep a prescribed set of telecommunications data for two years, and was introduced to the Parliament in October 2014 by the Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull. According to Turnbull, the bill is intended to introduce common industry standards for data retention practices and to “prevent the further degradation of the investigative capabilities of Australia's law enforcement and national security agencies.” It followed two earlier tranches of national security legislation.
Country: Global
Domains: Privacy
Stakeholder: Government
Tags: national security, law enforcement, legislation, Australia, bill, data retention