“ASD goes rogue with Aussie metadata” [#geekgirl]
As reported by The Delimiter: “Australia’s peak electronic intelligence agency offered to share detailed information collected about ordinary Australian citizens with its major intelligence partners, the Guardian reported this morning, in moves that at least one high-profile lawyer says may have breached Australian law.
The accusations reportedly date back to a meeting held between the then-Defence Signals Directorate (now the Australian Signals Directorate) in 2008 in the UK. Also reportedly attending the meeting were Australia’s main intelligence partners the US Britain, Canada and New Zealand. At the meeting, according to notes released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the DSD offered to share extensive data about Australian citizens.
QC and human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has also published an opinionated article arguing that the ASD has broken the law in offering the data to Australia’s international partners.
The article has generated instant outrage in Australia’s digital rights community. Greens Senator and Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam held a press conference in Canberra this afternoon (YouTube video) to denounce the ASD’s actions over the issue.
“Today’s revelations about coordinated mass-surveillance of ordinary citizens will increase the pressure on the Australian Government to come to the table with transparency and reform proposals without delay,” Ludlam said in a separate statement.
“The publication of documents in which Australian spy agency DSD (now ASD) quite casually proposes to share ‘unminimised’ metadata obtained without a warrant with affiliated agencies overseas, implies that the agency may have been breaching Australian law for five years.”
“As Geoffrey Robertson QC points out, this would be in breach of sections 8 and 12 of the Intelligence Services Act 2001. The agency has the obligation to destroy ‘unintentionally’ obtained on Australians; instead, these discussions show the DSD contemplating sharing with overseas agencies and non-intelligence agencies.”