14 DAY TRIAL // Julian Assange, the famous WikiLeaks founder, is challenging the Australian government over some statements it has made regarding the communication interception practices.
“It is absurd that Australian government agencies continue to misrepresent the nature of interception and their access to intercepted data via Five Eyes sharing arrangements,” Assange wrote.
He is criticizing the government for saying that the entire process is under strict oversight, calling the entire attitude as “absurd” in a document he sent to the Australian Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee who is running a surveillance inquiry, reports the Age.
Assange also questioned the assurances given by the surveillance watchdog in Australia, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, that has found absolutely nothing wrong with the way the intelligence agency collects data.
“I would say that the data sharing about Australian persons for ASD (the Australian Signals Directorate) is regulated tightly by the Intelligence Service Act and the privacy rules made under that act and that data about Australian persons is subject to quite strict oversight,” said IGIS’ assistant inspector-general, Jake Blight.
On the other hand, Assange want the Senate committee to pay close attention to the documents that have been published about the XKeyscore program of the NSA, which explains pretty clearly how data is handled.
“The program includes a Five Eyes Defeat checkbox that allows analysts to filter out data from one or more of the Five Eyes countries. Such a check box makes sense only in the context of a default sharing of information among the 5 Eyes that inevitably and necessarily circumvents the TIA (Telecommunications Interception and Access Act).”
Weaker laws for oversight
Furthermore, the legislation that Blight is referring to, which he claims regulates the actions of the intelligence agency, has actually been amended to reduce the protections offered to Australians overseas and to increase the surveillance of their communications permitted. New anti-terrorist measures have granted broad access to people’s communications.
One of the most controversial issues on the list is the fact that the Australian government gave itself the power to use a single warrant to cover a limitless number of devices, reasoning that they can’t possibly know what their needs are going to be like ten years from now. Therefore, giving the intelligence agencies free hand to spy on as many people as they want while giving a single, overall, reason seemed like the best idea they could come up with.
The same legislation limits the press freedom by including up to 10 years jail time for journalists reporting on special intelligence operations.