Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Australia’s New Laws Could Damage Travelers’ Privacy: Reports





New laws proposed in Australia to protect the country's security could damage the privacy of travelers' personal data through security checks such as Iris, thermal or biometric scanning, The Guardian stated Tuesday.


According to a statement published on the Australian Attorney-General's website, the second part of amendments to be made to the existing Australian legislation on security will give greater power to customs and immigration officers to collect and retain personal identifiers of people traveling to Australia.

The Guardian said that according to an explanatory note from Australia's Immigration and Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison, the new changes would only be used to photograph people for automated passport checks using eGate and SmartGate, which are self-processing passport control machines.

However, the minister implied that other systems may well be used if need be.
"... Should the need arise, and technology improve, other personal identifiers such as a persons" fingerprints or iris scan may be prescribed in the migration regulations," the newspaper quoted Morrison as saying.

According to The Guardian, any new control systems to be will not be subject to the same privacy rules applying to identification checks, leading the Australian government to "harvest" personal data, which could later reach foreign and domestic government agencies.


The bills which are still awaiting consideration by the Australian parliament will also "create new offenses" for people who support terrorism as well as entitle law enforcement bodies to exercise new tools in investigating, arresting, and prosecuting people suspected of supporting conflicts abroad.
On October 1, the Australian parliament expanded the scope of the country's anti-terror legislation by approving the first part of the amendments that envision, among other things, imprisonment of up to 10 years for illustration of unauthorized intelligence information. The second part of the amendments is yet to be read by the country's legislative body.

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