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Well that's the theory anyway.

And it seems that governments all over the world have warmed to the idea that they should have the almost unfettered right to spy on their citizens' online activities in the name of security.

Regardless of your opinions in respect to a Net-user's right to privacy, one thing is for sure: we're all going to be paying for this cyber-surveillance in one way or another.

If the proposed new Telecommunications Interception bill does, as seems to be the case, apply to ISPs then the cost burden associated with providing "on demand" access to a user's traffic and history will almost certainly mean higher prices for everyone.

Of course such interception orders will be subject to all the normal checks and balances so we could hardly expect that there will be too many occasions when an ISP is required to divulge such information right?

Well if the experience of UK ISPs is anything to go by, you might be surprised just how many interception orders are issued.

According to this BBC report it seems that such requests under equivalent legislation are far from infrequent.

If we scale these figures to match our own population they indicate that our ISPs and telcos may well have to cope with over 15,000 such information or intercept requests each year.

Readers Say (updated irregularly) From Friday... 1.9mil for a website... - Lindsay $1.9m on a website?... - Alan Have Your Say

Yes, that's 42 requests per day!

In the case of a large Telcos or ISPs such as Telecom, Xtra or TelstraClear, that could mean adding several full-time staff members just to liaise with police and other authorities demanding such information.

And what about the smaller ISPs whose resources are already stretched dangerously thin? How are they supposed to come up with the resources required to meet their obligations under this proposed bill?

Let's hope that the government practices what it preaches perhaps.

If you want information from almost any government department you have to cope with a little policy called "user pays."

Most of the time you have to pay for the cost of providing that information, so let's hope that this bill includes a fair and reasonable provision for compensating ISPs for the time and resources they have to employ in order to meet their obligations.

Yeah, and pigs might fly!

Over the last few years I've spent over $10,000 in accounting fees and endless hours of my own time in order to ensure that I've met my "obligations" under the tax laws. User-pays, it seems, is very much a one-way street when it comes to the government and information.

A Reminder
Just a reminder that I'll be away in the UK next week. I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing in respect to Aardvark Daily while I'm out of the country since my portable PC is dead and (unlike Singapore) it doesn't seem that UK hotel rooms come with a broadband DSL connection as part of the service anyway.

Of course if there are any portable PC and cellular-modem vendors out there who'd like me to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of their wares for 10 days I'm all ears :-)

If any Aardvark readers have an opinion on today's column or want to add something you're also invited to chip in and have your say.

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