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0 pointsdrodgers9y ago0 comments

> As a side perk, Australia has no equivalent to a National Security Letter, and FastMail is able to hence notify me of any government requests for access to my data.

Unfortunately we've got something pretty close: ASIO can designate any of its activities to be part of a Special Intelligence Operation at will, which makes any disclosure of the operation or its components into a crime (10 years jail if it 'endangers' the operation).

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-14/journalists-face-jail-...

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ocdtrekkie9y ago

Interesting. Can other countries invoke it? Because I know the US can ask the Australian government for assistance, but I wonder if that assistance can qualify for being an SIO.

angry_octet9y ago

By all indications, use of this provision is extremely rare, nothing like the number of NSLs issued in the US. So it would be a big ask, but it could happen if the consequences of wide disclosure were 'extremely grave'.

For context, one of the motivating leaks was when there was a planned 5am counter terror raid, and someone in the state police leaked the who/what/where to a major newspaper, who had papers coming off the presses at 3am about people who hadn't been raided yet.

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