ALHR opposes access to Retained Metadata for Civil Litigation

January 27, 2017

ALHR strongly opposes the use of data retained under the mandatory retention scheme for non-criminal and non-security matters involving civil litigation.  The mandatory data retention scheme was claimed by the Commonwealth Government to be purely a targeted and proportional response to perceived security threats.

The Inquiry is considering the possibility of opening up access to all of the data that is legally retained only for the purpose of compliance with the scheme to any person bringing a civil court case, including a case for monetary compensation.

If this were to happen it would completely change the basis on which the mandatory data retention scheme is accessed, and would allow the use of personal metadata for purposes completely different to those originally intended when the scheme was established. This is a matter of serious concern from a privacy and human rights point of view.