Mega-creepo head honcho lawyer George Brandis has decided to have a "consultation" about how to use the metadata that is collected about every single Australian (if you use an ISP, telco) over the Christmas period when no one is there.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/22/australian_internet_…
This is how he conducted the initial "consultation" about spying on everybody to start with in 2014. Despite insisting that nothing would be done with the metadata of every single Australian at the time he now wants to discuss using it in civil cases which will no doubt make Foxtel, Netflix and Hollywood very happy indeed.
He also insisted that no organisation that wasn't a law enforcement agency would be allowed to use the data although he broke that promise a mere six weeks after passing the legislation so we shouldn't be that surprised. We meaning the three Australians that care about this of course :p
I saw this and agree it is a shocker.
Scenarios like an aggrieved ex-spouse getting access to your whereabouts from phone records, employers challenging unfair dismissal proceeding and getting copies of the subject line and every email you have sent, insurance companies getting access to who you called at what precise times the day you made a claim, finance companies seeing who else is calling you.
Not to mention Village and Foxtel sifting through every packet header in case you accidentally saw a video without paying or business rivals going on 'fishing trips' through data for the sake of industrial espionage.