EFA MEDIA RELEASE - WOOD INTERNET PROPOSALS SLAMMED

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Media Release
Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.

                    Media Release                  August 31st 1997

WOOD INTERNET PROPOSALS SLAMMED

Electronic Frontiers Australia today warned that the recommendations of
the Wood Royal Commission regarding the Internet would, if implemented,
deny Australians basic rights to privacy.

The proposals would require Australian Internet Service Providers to
keep detailed logs of the activities of Internet users, and allow the
police to inspect those logs at any time, without a warrant.

Kimberley Heitman, EFA Chair, said "this is totally inconsistent with
the protections which exist for the telephone and postal systems, where
warrants are needed for monitoring communications.  Internet use is an
essentially private matter, and allowing police to spy on it without a
warrant is what one would expect from a totalitarian state."

"Most child abuse occurs in the home, and it would certainly be much
easier to catch abusers if every room in every house were fitted with
video surveillance equipment.  This would, however, be an unacceptable
intrusion into the privacy of private life.  But the Wood Report proposes
the equivalent for cyberspace!"

The recommendation that police have the power to demand, without court
order, private encryption keys means than people would have to deliver
up secret information such as PIN numbers and passwords to any police
officer on demand.  Heitman stated "this is an unprecedented police
power, and could result in people facing prison sentences merely for
forgetting passwords."

Heitman concluded: "We urge the governments of Australia to maintain
a perspective about the extent of illegal activity on the Internet.
Most Internet users are ordinary people going about their daily lives,
and they should not have Big Brother looking over their shoulders just
in case they commit a crime."

ENDS

      --------------------------------------------------------------
      Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc  --  http://www.efa.org.au/
      representing Internet users concerned with on-line freedoms
      --------------------------------------------------------------
      Media Contacts

      Kimberley Heitman
      Phone: +61 8 9458 2790
      Email: [email protected]

      Danny Yee
      Phone (home): +61 2 9955 9898
      Phone (work): +61 2 9351 5159
      Email: [email protected]
      --------------------------------------------------------------

BACKGROUND

  Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service
  Final Report Volume V: The Paedophile Inquiry
  Commissioner: The Hon Justice JRT Wood
  August 1997
    http://www.nsw.gov.au/html/police_royal_commission.html
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