Australian corporates support data retention

Australian corporates generally support the government’s proposed new data retention laws but believe that strong safeguards will be needed to protect consumers and businesses, research suggests.

A survey of higher-ups from organisations in the listed, private and government sectors shows that 64% support the government’s plan to require telecom service providers to maintain customer metadata for up to two years.

But the survey, conducted by risk consulting firm Protiviti, also shows that business leaders have concerns over potential unintended consequences of the legislation.

Nearly four in five (78%) respondents believe that authorities should need to obtain a court warrant before being able to access the stored data.

In the event that the government decides to allow warrantless access, respondents believe this should only be for high-risk national security investigations (88%) or serious crimes including murder or child pornography (66%).

Two thirds of business leaders also fear that the proposed data retention scheme would cause greater data security risks in the form of more targeted hacking and cybercrime activity. The stored data would be a gift for fraudsters and other online criminals.

In anticipation of these risks, 87% of respondents believe that ISPs should be required to adhere to specific security standards in terms of the information held.

“The business community appreciates that national security risks are a legitimate focus for the government at present,” Protiviti managing director Mark Harrison commented.

“However, they also feel that retaining customer ‘metadata’ can amount to a significant privacy incursion as it can reveal a great deal about a person’s movements, relationships and day-to-day lives.”

Image courtesy of redjar under CC