Australia Strengthens Data Surveillance in Antiterror Push

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA, Australia--Australia's conservative government and Labor opponents pushed through new laws allowing more scrutiny of people's phone and Internet activity, legislation other lawmakers and privacy advocates have described as unwarranted and excessive.

The new data-retention laws, aimed at countering terrorism threats, require telephone operators and Internet providers like Telstra Corp. and Vodafone Australia to hold records of their customers' emails and other communication for at least two years. Previously, such companies would delete their records according to their own policies.

The Green Party, the country's third-biggest political force, and privacy groups have argued that the long-proposed dragnet laws paved the way for a worrying degree of mass surveillance of Australians by police and intelligence services.

"The bill contains safeguards to protect our cherished rights and liberties, including through the establishment of additional oversight mechanisms covering the security and law-enforcement agencies," said Attorney General George Brandis in a statement after the laws were approved in the upper-house Senate by 43 votes to 16.

"No responsible government can sit by while those who protect us lose access to vital information, particularly in the current high-threat environment," the statement, also signed by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, said.

The so-called metadata laws require companies to reveal the time of any communication as well as the participants involved, though not the content of calls, emails or Internet records. They are similar to data-retention laws passed in other countries, including the U.S., since terrorists flew aircraft into the World Trade Center in 2001.

But their introduction has become more controversial since Edward Snowden's revelations of secret mass surveillance of U.S. citizens by the National Security Agency, where the whistleblower used to work as a contractor. Australia is a member of the 'Five-Eyes' intelligence network maintained by Western allies, including the U.S., U.K., Canada and New Zealand.

"Surveillance should be targeted, proportionate and leveled at serious criminals, organized crime and national security threats," said Scott Ludlam, a senator for the Greens. "This bill entrenches the opposite." He said the laws amounted to "passive mass surveillance" of more than 23 million Australians.

Critics also argue that they won't be effective because they don't apply to social-network platforms and third-party websites like Facebook and Google Mail that are popular with many Australians.

U.S. President Barack Obama recently called for a revamped metadata program with a more narrowly targeted system to safeguard privacy, while allowing law-enforcement and intelligence agencies to collect data believed necessary for national security.

Australia's metadata laws are the third installment of tougher counterterrorism legislation the government has crafted in response to a rise in the number of Australians seen as supporting radical groups like Islamic State in the Middle East.

Late last year, Australia experienced its first major terrorist incident after a man declaring himself to be an Islamic State supporter took hostages in a cafe in downtown Sydney--a siege that ended in his own death and that of two of his victims.

On Friday, a poll by Australia's Lowy Institute for International Policy showed strong public backing for the new laws, with 63% of people polled saying they were justified as part of the effort to combat terrorism and protect national security.

Only a third of the 1,200 people surveyed felt they went too far in violating privacy. Younger Australians aged between 18 and 29 were more likely to oppose the legislation, the survey found, though even within that bracket 50% of people supported the policy.

Write to Rob Taylor at rob.taylor@wsj.com

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