hope to leave this country for good sooner or later. Lot of complicit people willing to trade-off freedom for false sense of security.
Australia is becoming a surveillance state
11–20 of 437 posts
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#12What real/perceived security risk is AU dealing with to justify all these legal changes? They seem relatively isolated from many of the threats facing the US/EU west regarding terrorism/extremism. Borders in AU are pretty naturally secured by oceans.
Australia's participation in the "War on Terror" was seen to make it a target, and we were always told about "narrowly thwarted" attacks, though they pretty much always turned out to be deadbeat kids with no idea what they were doing. But that was sufficient to keep the fear level up. As others have said, these days China is held up as the big threat.
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#13What real/perceived security risk is AU dealing with to justify all these legal changes? They seem relatively isolated from many of the threats facing the US/EU west regarding terrorism/extremism. Borders in AU are pretty naturally secured by oceans.
Oz is part of the 5 eyes. The West in general, but especially the 5 eyes (anglosphere) have been waging an economic and propaganda war on China since Obama "pivoted east". Anti Chinese rhetoric in Oz media and from their politicians has been strident . It is quite possible that the 5 eyes are ramping up methods of internal control in expectation of a war with China.
As incompetent as Australia's current leadership is, I still have reservations that they would be naive enough to get involved in a war with their greatest trading partner.
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#14you know what's hilarious?
An article talking about surveillance states that immediately pops up a request for a bunch of personal information.
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#15It already has been for a long time. Freedom and liberty are practiced differently in Australia.
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#16What real/perceived security risk is AU dealing with to justify all these legal changes? They seem relatively isolated from many of the threats facing the US/EU west regarding terrorism/extremism. Borders in AU are pretty naturally secured by oceans.
The usual surveillance scapegoats, terrorists, drug dealers, pedophiles. Organized crime used to be the other one, but "foreign state sponsored cyber attacks" are very in vogue at the moment.
To be fair, Australia strangely enough struggles with plenty of organized crime in drug distribution.
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#17Since 2015 and the meta data laws it’s no wonder things have continued to get worse. There was practically no opposition to the meta data laws. No popular resistance. No protests. It’s a non-issue for the public or political class. The extent to which non-tech people in my social circles care is to switch to signal. Not that they’ve stopped using the other tools. There seems to be a “what else can we do” attitude. Un…
There are far bigger issues in Australia right now to care about meta data logging. Climate change and now the vaccine delay consume all of the publics attention. Metadata logging is a theoretical issue while the lack of vaccine supplies is a very real and immediate issue.
Multitasking isn't something new.
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#18Unfortunately we're all becoming surveillance states :(
So many European countries are now requiring people to ID themselves and get a QR code scanned at every shop, every restaurant, every public transport journey. All combining to a detailed digital record of who has been where. Under the guise of protecting against COVID but who says this will disappear once the pandemic is over?
I think we're going too far to accomodate those who won't get vaccinated. If everyone gets it, this scanning wouldn't be necessary (after all, vaccination is enough to get access). We're giving up a lot of privacy all of a sudden without any serious debate. The alternative (getting tested every 2 days) is not viable anyway so eventually everyone will get it. IMO we should just make it mandatory now and skip the privacy invasion. Give the people who refuse anyway a fine and leave it at that (there will be so few left not to be an issue). I'm not in favour of forcing it.
I'm surprised Australia is still so worried about terrorism though. It never really had an issue with it in the first place and it's no longer the monster of the week.
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#19>“[These laws] represent, in my view, significant expansions of the existing powers of law enforcement agencies away from a traditional focus on investigation and the collection of admissible evidence of specific offenses to disruption, to attack, to take-over, to take-down,” Dr Mann said. Yikes. This is like government being infested by cancel culture (attack w/ no evidence needed, pile on & take down). What phenome…
It's just the logical consequence of unchecked abilities. If there was a counter force, e.g., personal liability for abuse, things might be different. But since lawmakers can basically do whatever they want and, worst case, maybe have their laws retracted later by some court, they will invariably pile surveillance measure on top of intervention measure on top of loisening some restrictions so they at least did something while in office.
Later, of course, some politician will abuse this power. But then it's too late. You cannot assemble anymore because your messengers will be disabled/censored. You cannot speak freely anymore because your home assistant will rat you, apple style. You cannot even move freely anymore because your car and your public transportation will be tied to your digital persona and your social score. Of course you can forget about paying for something because both cash and cryptocurrency will be outlawed.
Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state
#20One theory I read once is that Australia leads the way with these laws for the other members of the five eyes to eventually follow. Is there any truth in this?