So last week we had Customs searching through returning travellers’ computers to see if they had any (quite legal) “pornography” they could confiscate… and now we have the news that Stephen Conroy’s department is considering logging every site you visit. Not just “if you’re suspected of a crime” – that power’s already there – but everyone. Every site, every day.
Don’t worry, though – I’m sure these extraordinary powers will never be abused. They’re just there to be used sparingly and appropriately by nice honest men who are above corruption and greed and the petty failings of us ordinary human beings. Promise. You’ve got nothing to worry about.
ELSEWHERE: The issue of letting an entity have vast power just because you trust it in its present form is also raised, ironically enough, by the case of Conroy’s new nemesis, the diabolical Google. Google is collecting an enormous amount of information about all of us, and presently we don’t seem to mind – because it has such a nice fluffy image as a company dedicated to “not being evil”. But Google is just a publicly-listed company. What assurance do we really have that it will always be in such benevolent hands? The answer, of course, is none.
Moved On 
Logging every site we visit?
Perhaps Getup should start a campaign to get all of us visiting greens.org.au.
Let ASIO analyse that!
And as for Google, well… just go Bing.
Cheers
Funny, there was this other guy, also named Stephen Conroy, getting all worked up about Google collecting personal information.
How do these ALP apologists still think this party is left wing?
More info on Conroy’s 10 years of browsing history recording
http://www.zdnet.com.au/govt-wants-isps-to-record-browsing-history-339303785.htm?
Marek, it is a pretty sad state of affairs when the only real alternative is Microsoft.
We are coming to the end of a little golden age of the internet, the time before business and government powers conscript it to their own malicious ends.
I agree, SB.
I remembers the days when we had a choice of at least a dozen search engines and they were all pretty much they same.
Aside from Bing, I’ve also gone back to Alta Vista for those times that I get the shits with sponsored ads.
Cheers.
Another double standard from Stephen Conroy – that’s remarkable, and here I was thinking that it was just a slight oversight that he wants to outlaw porn on the internet, whilst permitting advertisers to push it down our throats on free to air telly. The man is a world of contradictions.