Meta-data can be roughly thought of as the “envelope” of a message. For example, the meta-data of a phone call would include information on the caller, callee, time, date, length, but not the actual discussion that took place. In 2015, the Australian government passed a controversial law requiring telecommunications companies to collect and store meta-data. This law came into effect in 2017 [1]. One argument that was made by the government was that it was only collecting meta-data, not the message data itself. Another argument was that this was required for security, and that law-abiding citizens had nothing to fear.

a) Is routine collection of meta-data an invasion of privacy?

b) How do you feel about the Australian government's two arguments?

c) How would you feel if your employer collected and stored meta-data relating to your activities at work (e.g. emails, phone calls)?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

a Yes The law passed by the Australian Government does invades our privacy Collection of Metadata do... View the full answer