Office of the Privacy Commissioner makes submission on amendments to telecommunications laws - Blake Dawson Waldron Lawyers
On 27 February 2007, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (Office) released its submission to the Attorney-General's Department on the Exposure Draft of the Telecommunications (Interceptions and Access) Amendment Bill 2007 (Cth).
The draft bill is part of the Federal Government's legislative program to implement recommendations made by the Review of the Regulation of Access to Communications under the Telecommunications (Interception) Act 1979 conducted by Mr Anthony S Blunn AO (Blunn Review).
While the Office generally supports the proposed amendments, the Office raised a number of concerns regarding how these proposed amendments will impact on individual privacy and what responsibilities telecommunications carriers have under the new regime.
In particular, the Office raised concerns about the proposed voluntary disclosure provisions which allow a carrier to make voluntary disclosures of information to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, criminal law enforcement bodies, civil penalty enforcement bodies and public revenue bodies where an employee of the carrier comes across information which is clearly relevant to the enforcement of criminal law. The amendments allow disclosure if the disclosure is necessary for the enforcement of law.
The Office submitted that the voluntary disclosure provisions do not make clear what carriers' responsibilities are in relation to information they discover and suspect should be referred to a law enforcement agency, and may cause confusion and result in a carrier making an unauthorised disclosure.
The Attorney-General plans to introduce the Bill into Parliament during the Autumn 2007 sitting.
