Here's a fucking headline for you:
Facebook or Twitter posts can now be quietly modified by the government under new surveillance laws.
A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security.
The bill updates the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. In essence, it allows law-enforcement agencies or authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) to modify, add, copy or delete data when investigating serious online crimes.
The Human Rights Law Centre says the bill has insufficient safeguards for free speech and press freedom. Digital Rights Watch calls it a “warrantless surveillance regime” and notes the government ignored the recommendations of a bipartisan parliamentary committee to limit the powers granted by the new law.
Oz is really going to shit, isn't it. I thought Ozzies were fiercely independent, but apparently, like so many of us Yanks, they're perfectly willing to knuckle under to the oppressor.
ADDENDUM: via Bill:
I know quite a few Aussies here and surprisingly they say very little about the oppression taking place in their homeland. I guess being a prisoner is their genes or something...
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