Offshore metadata storage fine by me, says Malcolm Turnbull

Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull has told the telecommunications industry he doesn't think Australian telecommunications carriers should be required to hold stored customer data within Australia. Data sovereignty has become a hot-button privacy topic in Australia with the rise of the cloud, and with the government's …

[John Tserkezis]

Australia for sale! Australia for sale! Forget all those bridges the scamsters have been trying to sell you, now you can buy all manner of all data ever held by any Australian ever.

"iiNet's chief regulatory officer Steve Dalby says the industry will be seeking lowest-cost build for data storage, raising the possibly-unlikely scenario that the data will end up stored in China."

No problem! Just call us the Australian Republic of China.

[LaeMing]

Just call us the Australian Republic of China.

We might get decent public services then, at least.

[anonymousI]

Re: Just call us the Australian Republic of China.

And all our data will then be doubly well scrutinised.

[Invidious Aardvark]

No compelling argument?

How about some vague hope that they can be held accountable for its security and preventing various three letter agencies (let's just call them the USA) from grabbing all the data, without a warrant, because it's held by a company whose cleaner's sister's ex-boyfriend's dog's fleas once set foot on USA soil?

[LaeMing]

Re: No compelling argument?

Most Australian politicians consider Australia an informal extension of the USA anyway.

[Bush_rat]

Re: No compelling argument?

Unless we're talking about media. Do you know how much it costs an HD movie's worth of bits over fibre? So much that only Telstra should be able to. /s

[Mark Simon]

The end of espionage as we know it

OK, here’s the plan. First, we’ll spy on our citizens. Then we’ll hand over the data to anybody who’s interested. That way foreign spies can leave us alone and just wait for the results.

[Urh]

hold your horses...

I've yet to hear a compelling argument in favour of storing metadata at all. As far as I'm concerned, the only correct place to store it is nowhere.

[JJKing]

"AFP head of counter-terrorism Neil Gaughan telling Fairfax metadata helps police clear suspects from investigations"

If you believe that, then I have 5 magic beans and a coat-hanger shaped bridge in Sydney that you can buy.

[rtb61]

Basically we need to spy on you so that you can prove you have not committed any crimes but only if you are poor, if you are rich, then privacy rules.

Don't think so, think of the data collect difference between a private individuals internet connection and a corporations VPN hiding selected internal traffic.