Image from SBS
By Situation Theatre 27/4/2020
Individuals need to sort out these unhealthy defence mechanisms.
The Australian public has been asked to sort out their messed-up trust issues and just download the new tracing app after expressing the misguided notion that somehow the Morrison Government is unworthy of said trust.
According to The Guardian,
Senior bureaucrats have been accused of having a “cavalier disregard” for the handling of Australians’ personal data.
Since parliament passed mandatory data retention legislation in 2015, 87 agencies that should not have access to the data have accessed it, over 8,000 times in the 2018-19 financial year.
In theory, police require special warrants to access a journalists’ metadata. Classic AFP: good in theory, not in practice.
Some agencies have seen citizens web histories, despite the Government’s promises to the contrary.
The personal Centrelink details of a writer critical of robodebt were released by the Government.
Anti-encryption legislation rushed through before the end of 2018 contained numerous flaws which now require amendment. The legislation forced tech companies into self-inflicting product vulnerabilities and it’s a crime for these companies to disclose their nature.
Medicare numbers have been sold on the dark web.
The personal details of 10,000 asylum seekers were accidentally published online. Oopsie.
It turned out that de-identified Medicare data could be reidentified. In response, the Government tried to make it a crime to reidentify the data rather than address the data breach.
The 2016 census was taken offline by a DDoS attack and blame was falsely deflected to a foreign power.
When people tried to sign up for jobseeker payments, Services Australia couldn’t handle the traffic. Stuart Robert incorrectly blamed a DDoS attack for the Government’s failure to prepare for an influx of jobseeker applications.
The AFP raided the underwear drawer of a journalist for evidence as to a source.
To discover the source of NBN Co. leaks during the 2016 election, the AFP raided the home of a Labor staffer as well as Parliament House.
After arguing police access to My Health Record was no biggie, the Government was forced to change legislation to prevent it.
According to Digital Rights Watch,
A week after Scott Morrison stated no mobile phone location data was being used by the Government as it was in the UK to monitor trends in response to the virus, an arrangement between Vodafone and the Government to do exactly that was revealed. Arrangements with other telcos have not been confirmed but are almost certainly in place. This deception typifies the government’s approach to issues around privacy and surveillance in recent years.
But seriously people, it’s about time you get over yourselves and start placing blind faith in the least transparent, least competent, most dishonest, and most dystopian government in Australian history.