The Act facilitates Australia's accession to the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Cybercrime - noted here - by amending the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth), the Telecommunications (Interception & Access) Act 1979 (Cth), the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987 (Cth) and the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).
Specifically the amendments change
- the Telecommunications Act 1997 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to require carriers and carriage service providers to preserve stored communications when requested by certain domestic agencies or when requested by the Australian Federal Police on behalf of certain foreign countries. That requirement is more restricted than the comprehensive mandatory data retention regime proposed by Attorney-General Nicola Roxon on an on-again off-again basis
- the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987 and Telecommunications (Interception & Access) Act 1979 to ensure that a foreign country can secure access to stored computer data, including preserved data, and allow a stored communication warrant to be obtained for foreign law enforcement purposes
- the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987, the Telecommunications Act 1997 and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to enable existing telecommunications data to be provided to a foreign law enforcement agency on a police to police basis, and enable the collection of prospective telecommunications data for foreign law enforcement purposes in certain circumstances
- the Telecommunications Act 1997 to provide that carriers and carriage service providers can recover costs incurred when assisting foreign law enforcement agencies
- the Criminal Code Act 1995 to provide that computer offences are consistent with the Convention
- the Telecommunications (Interception & Access) Act 1979 to create confidentiality requirements in relation to authorisations to disclose telecommunications data; and expand offence provisions.
