The Chill of Being Watched Is an Actual Feeling I Just Discovered ...

Diji1 on 20/05/2015 - 16:23

So as you may or my not be aware the Australian Gov has recently passed legislation that enables Australia's intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless surveillance of anyone in Australia via electronic means. This is allowed by a manadatory collection of your metadata that must be stored for 2 years currently. It's all Australian citizens that are spied on, doesn't matter if you aren't breaking any laws, so if you're reading this it means you.

And by passed legislation I mean rushed through in a manner that disallows debate and when no one is watching: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/08/australia_ignores_da…

Most Australians seem apathetic including what seems like a large number of young people who strangely seem enraged by the recent revelations that US intelligence agencies have been illegally surveilling Americans … but still couldn't give a rats **** apparently about their own elected government doing the same thing with far less safeguards to themselves. Kinda er … idiotic but I think it's kind of the apathetic version of being an activist or something … act like you give a toss but just not where it actually matters :p

To give you a flavour of where this is going: Senator Brandis and others repeatedly stating that no other parties will be added to the list of who is allowed to spy on any Australian citizen at all without a warrant. Clearly determined to keep to their word hohoho a mere SIX WEEKS after the legislation was passed another agency was added to the list of who is allowed to access metadata. Just to make sure we know they they're taking it seriously though the new agency is not even a law enforcement body. So that's pretty reassuring LEL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/17/border_force_bureauc…

It's right about now that the tales of NSA employees passing around nude photos of innocent people becomes really creepy: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/edward-snowden-guardian-in… <- those guys we're at least intelligence agents - it's hard to see how a non-law enforcement bureaucrat is going to be any more responsible given that they're aren't even involved in an illegal program like those guys.

I guess we can only look forward to who else gets added to the list of who is allowed to spy on you. Now that the bar has been set at lower than "law enforcement" who could be next? The ATO - I mean they've got to be interested in what you've been doing right? The RSPCA? The Electoral Board?

So anyhow to bring this possible boring story to an end in light of all this: today i went and bought a new SIM starter kit. As they didn't ask me to fill out any forms or show ID and so on I enquired as to why this is. The lady told me that there's no longer a requirement to collect and verify the identity of anyone buying a SIM card.

When she told me this I got a sudden chill for the first time ever really … I don't know if the reason that information is no longer collected is related to the new surveillance regime in Australia. But it's hard not to put 2 and 2 together none-the-less: the SIM will now be watched because everything relating to it barring the actual content is collected and stored by legislation in Australia now.

Internet

Comments

  • battler on 20/05/2015 - 16:32
    +7

    where's the TL;DR ?

    • johninmelb on 21/05/2015 - 12:56

      What does TL:DR mean?

      • Mikinoz on 21/05/2015 - 13:00

        Too long didnt read

  • [Deactivated] on 20/05/2015 - 16:45

    "But it's hard not to put 2 and 2 together none-the-less:"

    Last time I bought I was told It was too much trouble or something, and that all the same verification is now done during signup.

    Makes good sense.

    PRIVACY, I just use Vpn or Tor everytime I want to lookup anything interesting, and do it with SSL and TLS switched off, and plugins like Flash off, which I think tunnel direct.

    If interested, the searchengine http://www.searchalta.com does not need SSL, BUT has yuk porn & ads. Beggars can't be choosers. There may be no other SE's that do not tunnel direct to your computer using SSL/TLS, so this may be best for that.

  • Settero on 20/05/2015 - 16:53

    if you are talking about meta data… thats a stretch to being watched. and a GIANT leap from what the us agencies where doing to the Americans.

    • mskeggs on 22/05/2015 - 07:48

      Meta data collects who you are emailing, chatting, texting, calling, at what times, how often and the subject of emails.
      I put it to you I could detect things like:
      - you were having an affair
      - you were looking for a new job
      - you were planning on voting for a party
      - you were looking at buying a new car
      - you were exploring off-shore bank accounts
      - your preferred take away and delivery meals
      - whether you click on the ozbargain posts about guns

      If that isn't being watched, I don't know what you would consider it.
      And as for the US, remember they use other 5 eyes member nations to monitor US citizens, then exchange data so they aren't directly doing it (which is illegal in the USA). Do you think ASIO/ASIS/DSD would behave differently?

      I used to sneer at conspiracies about what the government was doing, but many have since been proved true. Which is disgraceful.

  • nocure on 20/05/2015 - 16:54
    -6

    Nothing to hide…nothing to worry about ,if people are stupid enough to upload nude photos of themselves they deserve what they get imo.

    • mskeggs on 22/05/2015 - 07:49

      Net time you go to buy a Toyota are you OK with me sending the sales guy all your posts saying how much you love Toyota and would never consider another brand?

      • nocure on 22/05/2015 - 09:11

        Yep, no problem… Send him this…I'm gunna buy a Mitsubishi …who gives a sh!t. It's only the people that have something to hide worry about BB watching.

  • plmko on 20/05/2015 - 17:34

    LOL what? That's a pretty big story spin you got there.

  • spackbace on 20/05/2015 - 17:44
    +6

    Oh boy, I just discovered you and this person are the same…

    • Baysew on 20/05/2015 - 19:55
      +2

      But the true paranoid would not -

      Go to a convenience store - Think of all the CCTV
      Use a credit card under any circumstances
      Get into a dispute with the shopkeeper (Probably foreign agent) with witness present
      Threaten to report shopkeeper to the authorities.

      Be on the internet at all. (Which is not a bad thing for the rest of us)

  • Pigey on 20/05/2015 - 18:22
    +1

    You need to provide ID when registering. You need to provide some sort of Government ID which is crosschecked against various sources.

    This is why you don't need to provide ID when buying a SIM.

  • 2Poor4Ozb on 20/05/2015 - 19:11

    you can just make up some bullshit id and use older non internet/gps mobile and dont call at home location. how they gonna track that?

  • iridiumstem on 20/05/2015 - 20:04

    I always think there is a trade off between privacy with security and convienience. Convieniences as in, if the shop keeps a record of you purchasing things, it can be recovered if you need to get refunds. At the same time, the shop can use it for marketing even if they remove the personal information, some people really hate the fact that what they've done gets recorded.

  • Nutrino on 20/05/2015 - 20:17
    +6

    Give me my 3 min back please

    • jagboy on 21/05/2015 - 07:44
      -2

      Agreed. Talk about paranoid. If you are not doing anything wrong then what is there to worry about?

      • roadsign on 21/05/2015 - 13:16

        That's not the point. The point is whether you value your privacy or not.

        Imagine upon exiting your house one day you find a person searching through your trash painstakingly putting the shredded notes and documents back together. In response to your stunned silence he proclaims 'you don’t have anything to worry about – there is no reason to hide is there?'

        http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument

      • Speckled Jim on 21/05/2015 - 14:24

        How about the basic human right to privacy?

        what seems like a large number of young people who strangely seem enraged by the recent revelations that US intelligence agencies have been illegally surveilling Americans … but still couldn't give a rats **** apparently about their own elected government doing the same thing with far less safeguards to themselves.

        Yep, they're raising the pond temperature ever-so-slowly. When boiling point is reached, I guess we can call that a crisis, acknowledge the need to take action and mire it in partisan point-scoring.
        Result? We get screwed again.

        But it's of little consequence. Look at the fools paying good money buying devices that spy on themselves, their kids, their neighbours and other road users. Sure, they have a purpose, but once upon a time (not too long ago) we managed without them.

        The classic, though, is scores of "yoof" lining up to get RFID implants. For what purpose?
        Convenience (one of many trojan horses). The piece I saw a few years back concerned VIP express (let's chuck "Premium" in there, it's hot right now) nightclub entry.

        As for additional agencies being given access, it's small potatoes. Australia is a Five Eyes member (US, UK, Canada, NZ and AU). So to circumvent "archaic" local privacy laws, they just get another member to do the spying for them.

        But I don't give a crap as I don't have kids.

    • nocure on 22/05/2015 - 09:17

      Give me my 3 min back please

      Please send us you credit card details so we can refund you

  • strikerzebra on 22/05/2015 - 09:25

    Some people get off over being watched

    • Diji1 on 03/06/2015 - 11:21

      Bahaha, that gave me a chuckle. Picture Senator Brandis as the person doing the watching :P

      • strikerzebra on 03/06/2015 - 11:26

        Yeh that bald man wouldn't get me in the mood if he tried. ..

  • Diji1 on 03/06/2015 - 11:20

    Heh - so I just signed up a new Telstra SIM and the nice young woman told me that she's submitting my details (name, dob etc) to a government database and she cannot proceed until they verify me. That's basically paraphrased so I'm assuming it's part of her script or whatever.

    Wierdly Vodafone made me come into a store to verify my photo ID - which annoyed the shit out of me because I'm being made to run around for some asshat … and I assumed it was due to new legislation. But Telstra on the other hand didn't even ask for a passport or driver license and were happy with just a Medicare #.

    There wasn't any issue other than that unpleasant feeling that the "loonies" (Alex Jones types …) were not only right they gravely underestimated the extent of it :| … and now I have a pervasive feeling of being watched which is fundamentally undemocratic and against some definitions of human rights.

    (BTW Alex Jones types were right fair enough … but then if you guess a 100 times your going to be right I suppose.)

  • CraigZheng on 04/06/2015 - 00:05

    Ouch, I believe this topic deserves more attention. I didn't even know that until now.

  • Jared17 on 04/06/2015 - 13:06

    Western government watches it citizen more than anyone. Don't let the propaganda machine fool you otherwise

  • tonyjzx on 05/06/2015 - 13:33

    At this point its too late in the game. Both parties are complicit. It was dead on 11/09/01.

    I think at this point you have to minimise exposure. I dont go on social media, I dont use credit too much. There's no pics of me let alone my junk floating around.

    At the end of the day, I think big cities are the problem. If you move out of metro you'll find things a lot easier.

    I dont do any criminal activites but I'm not one of those "not doing anything wrong, here's all my details" fools.

    Assange is the perfect example of someone getting hung out to dry.

    And doctors going to jail for reporting on asylum well being?

    Its dead.

    Australia is dead. Privacy is dead. Stick a fork in it.

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