Chairman Krudd - Stop internet censorship in Australia

Do you like the idea that the government's filter is checking the identity of every web site that you visit, and in some cases checking the specific page that you visit?

Once the infrastructure is in place to block web pages at the government's whim, it can easily be extended. It would only be a small change to put in recording of each web page that is visited, or even actual web page contents. Through this mechanism the government could build up a detailed picture of opponents or critics. The information would be useful to the government. For example, the information could be leaked in order to cause embarrassment to the opponent or critic. This would of course be an unparalleled and massive invasion of privacy.

With this done, 1984 would truly have arrived and Big Brother would be watching your every move on the internet. It is darkly ironic that the communication medium that is most free today, the internet, could become the least free and most heavily monitored in the future. The government can do with the internet things that simply never would be practical with, say, the postal system.

Chairman Krudd's government has also opened a second front in its assault on your online rights. In addition to the attack on your right to freedom of speech online, which is the main subject of this web site, Chairman Krudd also proposed to attack directly your right to privacy online.

Currently the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act makes it illegal to intercept telecommunications except in limited circumstances - as should be the case. Chairman Krudd's proposed changes to this Act would make it legal to intercept telecommunications provided that it is "reasonable" to do so. This is a fairly dramatic change. It almost reverses the effect of the Act from "illegal unless shown otherwise" to "legal unless shown otherwise". "Reasonable" is a rather vague word. I won't be trusting my privacy online to someone else's interpretation of "reasonable"!

Many of the worst excesses in the proposed changes to this Act were dropped, due to widespread condemnation and objection. However it shows the direction that Chairman Krudd is going in and no doubt he will try again in the future.