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back to article Telco veteran unloads on Oz data retention laws

Reg Coutts, long-time telecommunications consultant and academic, has dropped a bucket on what he sees as a big danger in Australia's data retention regime. Writing in Canberra insider magazine The Mandarin, Coutts says it's clear that the lawyers and natsec types that decided what should be collected have a misplaced faith in …

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  1. MrDamage Silver badge
    Holmes

    Tower A, Tower B, Tower C

    Back in the old dumb phone days when you actually had the cell tower location available on screen, it was possible to get 3 or more different locations appear on your screen by just doing an about-face where you were standing.

    There were certain locations in the Sydney CBD where I tested this, and would get anything from Circular Quay, Ultimo, Wynard, or even Surry Hills depending on the direction I was facing.

    Could lead to some serious plausible deniability. Take 5 steps forward and connect to the Surry Hills tower, make the call, switch off your phone, then walk into a store with security cameras more towards Circular Quay, switch the phone back on, and then leave it to the authorities to explain exactly how you managed to travel those 4km in 30 seconds.

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    1. frank ly
      Reply Icon

      Re: Tower A, Tower B, Tower C

      Would the defence counsel for a 'civilian' be able to get access to the telco records? In a case like that, the investigating officers would look at the telco records and say, to themselves, "Ah well, we know it's not really accurate so we won't put this in the evidence file."

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Last sentence as ever makes the point

    “At least in our courts there is the opportunity for the interpretation of metadata can be contested by informed litigants,”

    Yeh, anyone with a Hi-Viz jacket can claim private data for any purpose, the purpose isn't checked, the target never gets to challenge it, or even be informed.

    The assumption is that Hi-Viz is always the good guy and will self-check, which is a dumb assumption given the cases of abuse, shootings, choking, agent-provocateurs at protests, police freelancing for tabloids, police freelancing for foreign groups, ex policeman impersonating active police in data requests.

    Why would criminal types become criminals when they can become policeman and get away with murder? So over time the police turn into a mafia.

    1 0 Reply
  3. dan1980

    While all this is indeed true, I really don't know what saying it will achieve because it's not as though it hasn't been said a hundred times before.

    The government just doesn't care - they wanted it so they were going to do it come what may. They refused to accept the validity of any of the worries or criticisms then so anyone who thinks there's even the slightest hope of them admitting any of this now is, well, let's say that I marvel at their optimism.

    3 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I love tech, but

    I'm seriously withdrawing from mobile phone/pad use.

    I'm learning that I just don't need a phone.

    It's quite liberating.

    2 0 Reply
  5. -tim
    Black Helicopters

    At least it isn't as simple as other geo location...

    I asked a friend to send me a list of wifi SSID and MAC addresses that he could see from his wifi scanning tool. I put 3 of them in access points half way around the world and then turned on an android phone. It geo located me to my friends house. I wonder if there is an app for that yet.

    1 0 Reply

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