back to article Business expects data retention will hit their bottom lines: survey

Risk management outfit Protiviti says Australian businesses are fearful that the government's proposed metadata retention scheme is going to cost them. The government is in the throes of considering a two-year retention regime for Australian telecommunications carriers and ISPs. While the Parliamentary Joint Committee on …

  1. Gray Ham Bronze badge
    Unhappy

    "62 per cent of respondents to its survey believe that retaining more data for longer will create security risks

    And of the 38% who don't believe retaining data will create security risks, how many believe they have fairies at the bottom of their garden?

    The more I think about this scheme, the harder it is to see any upside. Against the costs, risks to personal privacy and risk of administrative overreach is offset what? Where the claimed benefits are not vague, they have been specious.

  2. Andrew Meredith

    What is an ISP ?

    For the purposes of this act, what qualifies you as an ISP?

    Let's take a new-gen firm with most of the staff remote working. The firm may well supply email accounts, VPN access, website updating facilities etc etc. Does this make them an ISP ? They certainly have the email and web traffic going through their kit and unless the authorities are already doing some breaking in and snooping, that traffic will not get collected.

    If the fact that it's a company and the users are all employees counts them out, how about a club or a not for profit firm using volunteers and supplying them with the same facilities?

    In both these examples they "Provide" "Internet Services", so does that make them an "Internet Services Provider" for the purposes of the act.

  3. Graham Cobb Silver badge

    Depressing Oz data protection stat

    The respondents were much more receptive to the idea of mandatory data breach reporting, with 89 per cent in favour of such a regime

    That is very depressing. Not because I don't support mandatory breach reporting -- I do, very much. But because if 89% of businesses support it that means that they think it is something that will hurt their competitors and not them. Which means they don't understand anything about protecting their data. There is no way 89% of Oz businesses have even adequate data protection, let alone excellent protection.

    And while management don't understand that they are massively at risk, they won't invest.

    Still, maybe the first few mandatory breach reports will help them understand.

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