AFP accessed journalist’s call records in metadata breach

An Australian Federal Police officer has accessed a journalist’s phone metadata without a warrant, reigniting concerns about controversial data retention laws.

Civil liberties advocates and many MPs and senators queried the need for the laws, which came into force across all Australian telecommunications providers on April 13.

The laws force telcos to store two years of metadata including the time, date and duration of phone calls, IP addresses, and the names, addresses and billing information of internet and phone account holders.

AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin revealed on Friday an officer investigating the leaking of ‘sensitive information’ to a journalist had accessed the journalist’s metadata without a warrant.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman is conducting an audit of the matter, but the officer has not faced any disciplinary action.

The journalist has not been informed.

Mr Colvin said by going public with the breach and acknowledging the error, the AFP was being ‘open and honest’ about it.

‘There was no ill-will or malice or bad intent by the officer involved who breached the Act…. It was a mistake that should not have happened,’ he said.

The breach, which occurred earlier this year, involved the time, date and duration of phone calls over a period of about a week, not the calls themselves, Mr Colvin said.

‘The investigator sought and was provided access to the call records of a journalist without the higher authority of a journalist information warrant,’ he said.

Once the breach was discovered, the AFP destroyed all of the material and all investigations relating to the line of inquiry were ceased.

Mr Colvin said the AFP would consider informing the journalist once the investigation was completed.

The commissioner said he was satisfied, after internal checks, that it was the first breach of its kind since the government’s metadata retention laws were put in place.

‘I believe that the public should have full confidence in the police … and this (metadata retention) policy, which was a controversial policy that was debated very widely in parliament and the public at the time,’ he said.

‘I want to underscore how important access to metadata is to police as a fundamental building block of our investigations.’

Source: AFP accessed journalist’s call records in metadata breach | Daily Mail Online