61 government agencies want access to telco metadata

In total, 61 government agencies have applied for access to stored metadata under the mandatory data retention scheme, the government has revealed.

A freedom of information request filed by privacy advocate Geordie Guy and hosted on Right to Know names 57 of these agencies.

The remaining four were redacted by the Attorney-General’s department on the purported grounds that it would be contrary to the public interest to release them.

Agencies applying to access the data include the federal departments of Agriculture, Health, Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Environment, Human Services and Social Services. Other commonwealth agencies including the ATO, the Clean Energy Regulator and Australia Post.

The list also includes a number of state agencies, ranging from numerous state government departments to racing commissioners and other regulatory bodies, and even to a city council — from Bankstown in NSW.

At launch only 21 mostly law enforcement and other investigative agencies were allowed to access the stored metadata under the retention scheme, down from the government’s proposed list of 80 agencies able to seek access.

But critics of the legislation have been warning of the potential for scope creep — whereby the legislation is used to grant surveillance powers to a far wider range of agencies than initially planned — since before the bill was introduced.

Image courtesy of Tsahi Levent-Levi under CC