The UN Independent Expert on Privacy this week called for a new international treaty to protect people’s privacy from unfettered cyber-surveillance which is being pushed by populist politicians preying on fear of terrorism.
The UN Independent Expert, Joe Cannataci, said traditional privacy safeguards such as rules on phone tapping were outdated in the digital age.
The UN Independent Expert said that with governments worldwide demanding data from firms such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter it was time to look at creating an “”International Warrant” for data access or surveillance.
Civil Liberties lawyer Terry O’Gorman said that the existing national law in Australia was inadequate to deal with what Mr Cannataci has described as “the menace of over-surveillance”.
Mr O’Gorman called on the Federal Attorney-General to lay out Australia’s response to the call by Mr Cannataci for increased privacy safeguards in relation to national surveillance carried out throughout Australia by both the AFP and Intelligence Services.[i]
By Terry O’Gorman
13 March 2017
[i] Part of this article is derived from ITNews.com.au on 9 March 2017.