Re: ISP Privacy - does your isp do this???

Mike,

It is a growing trend, especially in Australia, to comply with the myriad 
of Internet censorship laws passed by the Australia federal parliament of 
late.  Perhaps this specific instance is a result of new legislation that I 
hear coming into effect at the end of the year?

Here in the USA, there are several pieces of legislation being prepared for 
introduction into Congress, or already running through Congress, which 
attempt to open up private communications for law enforcement agencies to 
use as they see fit.  In one case, legislation passed the US Senate 
allowing federal agencies to access Internet communications without a 
warrant.  However, while the legislation has yet to pass the House and be 
signed by the president to become law, the wording of the legislation is so 
bad that it violates the Fourth Amendment on its face.  It can never be 
enforced.  It appears to have some basis in the Australian 1999 ASIO 
Amendment which allows for warrantless searches of any computer in 
Australia -- something which Australians have no protection against under 
the Constitution.

Keep in mind the Australian Privacy laws only apply directly to the federal 
government.  If legislation requires ISPs to collect private information on 
behalf of the government, the ISPs are exempt from the privacy law even 
though the government is the recipient of the information.   The devil is 
in the details.


Dennis

At 16:09 2001-09-25 +1000, Mike Kear wrote:
>My ISP has asked everyone to agree to a new terms and conditions 
>statement, that seems to permit them to do anything they like with my 
>private information.  Here are the clauses that concern me:
>
>[quote]
>14.2 Company may collect, store, transfer and/or disclose to 
>third  parties, for any purpose (including where required by a 
>credit  reference provider or any Law), any information or data 
>(whether  confidential or not) relating to Customer's registration to 
>the  Service, use of the Service or this Agreement including data.
>
>
>14.3 Upon written request by Customer, Company must notify Customer of any 
>data or information collected, stored, transferred and/or disclosed by it 
>to a third party.
>[/quote]
>
>If I'm reading this right, they can disclose any details in the 
>registration data they have (name address, phone numbers, my age, 
>occupation, credit card details, bank account details, computer type) to 
>anyone they like.  I have no right to refuse, and they don't have to 
>disclose to me they've done it unless I ask in writing.
>
>I think this is outrageous but they say it's "quite normal" amongst ISPs.
>
>Is it?  Have any of you guys been asked to agree to this kind of blank cheque?
>
>Cheers,
>Mike Kear
>AFP Webworks
>Windsor, NSW, Australia


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