The passage of Australia’s data retention regime: national security, human rights, and media scrutiny

In 2015, the Australian government passed the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act, which requires ISPs to collect metadata about their users and store this metadata for two years. From its conception, Australia’s data retention scheme has been controversial. I...

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Main Authors: Nicolas Suzor, Kylie Pappalardo, Natalie McIntosh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society 2017-03-01
Series:Internet Policy Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://policyreview.info/node/454
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author Nicolas Suzor
Kylie Pappalardo
Natalie McIntosh
author_facet Nicolas Suzor
Kylie Pappalardo
Natalie McIntosh
author_sort Nicolas Suzor
collection DOAJ
description In 2015, the Australian government passed the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act, which requires ISPs to collect metadata about their users and store this metadata for two years. From its conception, Australia’s data retention scheme has been controversial. In this article we examine how public interest concerns were addressed in Australian news media during the Act’s passage. The Act was ultimately passed with bipartisan support, despite serious deficiencies. We show how the Act’s complexity seemed to limit engaged critique in the mainstream media and how fears over terrorist attacks were exploited to secure the Act’s passage through parliament.
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spelling doaj-art-1e32e4e7bf5d471680ae64115182982f2025-08-20T02:03:14ZengAlexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and SocietyInternet Policy Review2197-67752017-03-016110.14763/2017.1.454The passage of Australia’s data retention regime: national security, human rights, and media scrutinyNicolas Suzor0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3029-0646Kylie Pappalardo1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3367-8160Natalie McIntosh2Queensland University of TechnologyQueensland University of TechnologyQueensland University of TechnologyIn 2015, the Australian government passed the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act, which requires ISPs to collect metadata about their users and store this metadata for two years. From its conception, Australia’s data retention scheme has been controversial. In this article we examine how public interest concerns were addressed in Australian news media during the Act’s passage. The Act was ultimately passed with bipartisan support, despite serious deficiencies. We show how the Act’s complexity seemed to limit engaged critique in the mainstream media and how fears over terrorist attacks were exploited to secure the Act’s passage through parliament.https://policyreview.info/node/454Data retentionHuman rightsMediaMetadataSecurityPublic interest
spellingShingle Nicolas Suzor
Kylie Pappalardo
Natalie McIntosh
The passage of Australia’s data retention regime: national security, human rights, and media scrutiny
Internet Policy Review
Data retention
Human rights
Media
Metadata
Security
Public interest
title The passage of Australia’s data retention regime: national security, human rights, and media scrutiny
title_full The passage of Australia’s data retention regime: national security, human rights, and media scrutiny
title_fullStr The passage of Australia’s data retention regime: national security, human rights, and media scrutiny
title_full_unstemmed The passage of Australia’s data retention regime: national security, human rights, and media scrutiny
title_short The passage of Australia’s data retention regime: national security, human rights, and media scrutiny
title_sort passage of australia s data retention regime national security human rights and media scrutiny
topic Data retention
Human rights
Media
Metadata
Security
Public interest
url https://policyreview.info/node/454
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