How good is your democracy? Here's Australia -

"Australia’s current metadata retention laws are some of the most intrusive of any democracy in the world. These laws require that telecommunication companies keep records of every single phone call we make and text message we send, as well as a range of other personal data, for at least two years. This data is being quietly accessed over 350,000 times a year by at least 87 different agencies ranging from local councils to the RSPCA. The laws have also been used by police to secretly access journalists’ metadata at least 78 times. The Human Rights Law Centre has been challenging the scope of these laws and calling for significant reforms to safeguard democracy and our right to privacy. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security conducted an extensive review of the laws, which have been in place since 2017. The Human Rights Law Centre briefed the Committee, advising that the retention regime lacked important democracy safeguards and was a grossly disproportionate infringement of Australians’ privacy. In October 2020, the Committee handed down 22 recommendations to scale back the regime, including amending the laws so that people’s data can only be accessed by specified security and law enforcement agencies in connection with serious crimes."
2020 Annual Report Australian Human Rights Law Centre

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