[AusNOG] (Meta-)Data Retention

[Matt Palmer]

On Tue, Aug 05, 2014 at 11:04:22AM +1000, Robert Hudson wrote:
> This is very much like Conroy's Internet filter - the holes in the plan are
> stupendously large.  So large in fact that I was actually on the ABC's 7:30
> report demonstrating how simple it was to set up a VPN with an endpoint
> outside the filter  to bypass any sort of filtering that was put in place.
> 
> When and if this latest brainfart legislation comes in, people will do
> exactly the same thing as we thought they'd do when the filter was being
> proposed -those who are doing the wrong thing will go deeper underground,
> and those who don't do the wrong thing will be inconvenienced.  All it will
> do (other than cause a lot of pain and cost a lot of money) is push those
> who do wish to do the bad thing into using technologies that make it harder
> for the government to monitor their activities.
> 
> That our national security "experts" can't see this concerns the shit out
> of me - more than the proposed regulations, to be honest.

It's not the experts driving this -- even money says that anyone advising
the politicians on this is face-palming even harder than we are at what's
being proposed.  Policy is formed based on what will play well with the
electorate (via the media), not what will *actually* solve the problem. 
(cf. sigmonster)

- Matt

-- 
"If a politician fixes a problem then he loses it as a campaign issue. But
if he makes the problem worse while heroically fighting against it, then
he's golden."
                -- Rex Tincher