The Government wants to be your Facebook friend

THE Government is using a triple bogeyman threat - terrorists, paedophiles, and organised criminals - to justify Big Brother-style cyberstalking and trying to be your Facebook friend, policy analyst Andrew Baker says. 
 
Imagine Government spooks kicking your doors down and ferreting through your rubbish bins, collecting your passive aggressive status updates and threatening to lock you up if you don’t give them the passwords to your porn-infested laptop.

These are the sorts of intrusions they’re plotting under the guise of rooting out evil, according to Mr Baker, who is from the Centre for Independent Studies.

But the Government says people should "avoid reacting to these proposals with hysteria".

They are currently considering changes to national security legislation, including forcing telcos to store internet and phone data. They say they want to stay ahead of the baddies while "delivering the right checks and balances for a civil society".

But Mr Baker says those checks simply aren’t there and we’re facing a "true threat to our freedom". Writing on The Punch yesterday, he says:
"The Government has trotted out the usual scare words (terrorism, paedophilia and organised crime) to justify the erosion of civil liberties, the expansion of the nanny state, the imposition of miles of red tape, and the increase in the overall cost of living."
Mr Baker says the proposals currently before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security are "creepy".
"The Government wants to be your Facebook friend, follow you on Twitter, read your emails and text messages, and know which websites you visit," he said.
"It then wants to file all that information for up to two years in case you are found to be a terrorist, crime lord or paedophile.
"The Government also wants your computer passwords and might even send you to jail if you refuse."
He also criticised increased powers for spooks – the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers and Australian Secret Intelligence Services officers.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Nicola Roxon said data stored would be "meta data" such as the time an email was sent, rather than its content; that much social media content was already publicly available and warrants would still be needed to access private data; and that the scheme affecting ASIO officers actually ensured accountability.
"We must always stay a step ahead of terrorists, cyber criminals and organised criminals who threaten our national security," they said.
"At the same time, we need to have the right checks and balances to ensure that those who enforce our national security laws do so responsibly.
"Unlike the Howard Government, we are giving the public a say in the development of any new laws because we know this builds the trust and confidence the community has in those laws."

heraldsun.com.au 19 July 2012

There is no reason for any 'authority' to be your 'friend' on any social network site.

This is just another way of monitoring the masses, with the erosion of civil liberties at stake.

And people said the 'Communists' were bad
.