… information about the identity of the sending and receiving parties and related subscriber details, account identifying information collected by the telecommunications carrier or internet service provider to establish the account, and information such as the time and date of the communication, its duration, location and type of communication.
Law enforcement agencies are able to access historical/existing telecommunications data … by authorisation under the TIA Act 1979, in cases where the information is considered reasonably necessary for the enforcement of the criminal law or a law imposing a pecuniary penalty, or the protection of public revenue. Disclosures of prospective data (that which comes into existence after an authorisation is received and during the period it remains in force) can only be made in cases where it is considered reasonably necessary for the investigation of an offence that is punishable by imprisonment for at least three years.
Non-content telecommunications data is an important investigative tool for the AFP. It can provide important leads for agencies, including evidence of connections and relationships within larger associations over time, evidence of targets’ movements and habits, a snapshot of events immediately before and after a crime, evidence to exclude people from suspicion, and evidence needed to obtain warrants for the more intrusive investigative techniques such as interception or access to content. Disclosure of non-content telecommunications data is one of the most efficient and cost effective investigative tools available to law enforcement.
So if you were wanting to grind the AFP to a halt, then you should implement a warrant scheme to actually do non-content data application—because 23,000 of these would require 23,000 judges to consider affidavits for those to be prepared and for those to be granted. It is an unrealistic expectation.
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