NSWCCL spokesperson Stephen Blanks, spoke to The Guardian about the introduction of the telecommunications legislation amendment (information disclosure, national interest and other measures) bill to parliament today. 

The changes will allow emergency services more opportunity to apply for a warrant to request location triangulation data from phone companies to find missing people at risk. The current legislation allows disclosure of such information, under section 287 of the act, if emergency services believe “on reasonable grounds that the disclosure or use is reasonably necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of a person”.

Stephen Blanks said that we believe that the potential for misuse of location data, collected by everyone from telecommunications companies to Google, is enormous and people are rightly concerned this information could be misused. There must be a strong regime of protection in place, training and goverance to ensure police and other agencies properly protect private information.

For more information, read the full article.