The Canberra Times http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news2/news8.shtml Thursday, 21 October, 1999 ASIO is holding personal data 'just in case' By LINCOLN WRIGHT The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is collecting personal data on people who are not security risks and storing it just in case the information is needed for a real investigation, according to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Bill Blick. ASIO incidentally collected the personal information during investigations into real security risks, but to avoid misuse the organisation used a special register to vet requests for access from its own officers. The 1998-99 annual report of the IGIS also raised concerns that ASIO was using the services of a foreign intelligence agency, albeit one closely allied to Australia, believed to be the Central Intelligence Agency or Britain's MI6, to help translate intercepted telephone conversations. Mr Blick's report said it was important to ensure the foreign agency did not misuse the information, and called for an agreement to be drawn up to specify when the assistance could be provided and what the safeguards were. When ASIO applied for a warrant to intercept a telephone conversation, Mr Blick also recommended that the Attorney-General be informed at the time if the foreign agency's translation services would be required. ASIO has authority to collect intelligence about individuals or groups in the domestic arena who pose risks to national security. Mr Blick's role at IGIS is to inspect ASIO's activities, along with the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the Defence Signals Directorate, the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Office of National Assessments. Standards of file-keeping at ASIO were in order, the annual report said, but the issue of how to protect data on individuals who were not security threats still needed to be monitored. 'In some cases this could be personal information which has a legitimate place in the context of the whole investigation but which may not be of immediate or obvious security interest,' the report said. 'If ASIO is engaged in surveillance of an individual who is of security interest it may be necessary also to record details of people who come in contact with the individual or who reside, perhaps temporarily, in adjacent premises.' Destroying intelligence on people who were not security risks was not really an option and would have unforeseen effects on ASIO's future security investigations. 'On the other hand it would be inappropriate for such records to be available at large within the agency,' the report said. The relevance of new information to security concerns was not always apparent, but this was in the nature of intelligence work. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
