Millions of Australians place trust in Telstra every day to protect your privacy and keep your data secure. As part of honouring this trust, we are introducing new transparency measures that mean you will have more access to the data we hold than ever before.
In a first for the Australian telecommunications industry, we will be giving you access to the metadata* related to you that we would provide in response to a lawful request without a warrant from a law enforcement agency. We believe that if the police can ask for information relating to you, you should be able to as well.
With digital technology increasingly central to our lives, we are generating more data than ever before. With this trend has come some community concerns about who has access to this data.
Protecting citizens is one of the Government’s most fundamental roles and providing assistance to the police and security agencies is a profound responsibility for Telstra. In living up to our legal responsibilities we believe being open and upfront with you – our customers – is the best way to earning your confidence and trust.
In a recent post on how we work with law enforcement agencies, we explained the types of requests we receive from law enforcement agencies and how we respond to them. This initiative builds on the greater transparency we are offering in this area, including being the first telco in Australia to publish a Transparency Report.
We already make a lot of data available to customers, such as call records and service details, through our bills and Telstra MyAccount. We will build on this with our new principle of offering the same access to a customer’s own metadata as we are required to offer to law enforcement agencies.
This new approach is all about giving you a clearer picture of the data we provide in response to lawful requests today. As new technologies evolve and data management practices change (including potentially through the introduction of a data retention regime), we see this principle as continuing to apply.
The new option to request additional information that we hold on you will be available from 1 April 2015, through a web form on our privacy portal.
Requests for data beyond what is available on MyAccount will be subject to a cost recovery fee when a request is actioned. This fee will depend on how far back into Telstra records you request. Simple requests are expected to cost around $25, while detailed requests covering multiple services across several years will be charged at an hourly rate. This is the same practice of cost recovery that is applied to requests from law enforcement agencies.
The data provided will be limited to information associated with your account. Information about another party will not be provided, such as who called you.
Metadata is the data generated when you use a telecommunications service – information such as the number you called, when you called and how long you spoke for. It does not include the content of a communication, such as the detail of what you said or wrote in an email or SMS. The police and other enforcement agencies can access metadata under law without a warrant.
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Hi I found this fascinating to read and have a few questions for Kate Hughes as I am curious to understand what Telstra uses to index and search metadata and if she would be interested in finding out if there is a better way to search and index metadata as I work within this field and would like to share my insights into how we do it at Nuix for many large corporations around the world.
Thanks for your interest, John. I’ve passed your details onto the team for you. Thanks, Jamie.
Telstra should NOT be capturing and retaining any “Index and search” metadata under any circumstances. It’s not “required” for provision of services and as such I suspect it’s illegal to retain without prior explicit consent. The terms under which such data can be legally captured and retained needs to be made clear.
To provide customers with our telecommunications products and services and bill accurately for them, we need to collect and store some personal information. We also use some information to develop new products and services so that we better tailor our offers to your needs. This is all detailed in our Privacy Statement here: https://www.telstra.com.au/privacy.
Isn’t charging a fee for access to this information a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or is it the position of Telstra that meta-data does not constitute private information?
Will you provide a breakdown of the cost associated with complying with a request? $25 seems far too much for a request that will clearly be dealt with via automated processes.
Hi Scott, a lot of data is already available to customers through our bills and Telstra MyAccount. We will review each new request and if the information is already available through another channel we will inform the customer and not charge a fee. The fee for accessing metadata will only be charged if the request is actioned because the information is not available elsewhere. More details about the cost of the service will be made available on our privacy portal from 1 April. Thanks – Jay
I suspect the $25 fee will be challenged very quickly given the marginal cost to access the data is surely zero.
Welcome the transparency though.
Hi Neil, The fee for accessing metadata will only be charged if the request is actioned when the information is not available elsewhere (for example through our bills and MyAccount). If the information is already available to you we will inform you of this. We are applying the same practice of cost recovery as we do to requests from law enforcement agencies. Thanks, Jamie.
If, as you say, Telstra is being open and honest, will it inform the customer when and agency or individual reqests that particular customer’s data?
Hi Ian, The relevant legislation in this area prohibits us from providing details of specific requests made by individual agencies for customer information. Additionally, Telstra does not want to do anything that might jeopardise any investigations. We only disclose customer information in accordance with the law and we assess any request for information we receive from government agencies to make sure it complies with the law.
So how does this work with business accounts, in the case where I use a business mobile on an account which someone else manages?
Can:
1. I, as the phone user who is generating the metadata access the historical data?
2. The business, as the managers of the account access the metadata which I am generating, essentially impeding on my right to privacy?
This sounds like some very murky waters to be treading.
Hello — This announcement applies to individual consumer customers, not corporations. If you have a question about the policies and conditions applying to a service supplied by your employer you will need to ask your employer. In terms of a consumer service, if you are not the legal lease of the account you will not be able to submit a request.
And what about in a domestic violence relationship where the abuser is the account holder for the victim’s mobile?
Are you now going to allow the abuser to gain an even greater level of data and control over their victim?
We are trying to reduce domestic violence in Australia, not help contribute to it.
We acknowledge domestic violence is an incredibly serious issue and as a company we have partnered with the Women’s Services Network (WESNET) to help women impacted by domestic violence stay safely connected. You can find out more about the program on this site, including the educational materials and technology safety tips designed to assist women impacted by domestic violence.
Much of the information we will be making available through this policy is already available to account holders through our Bills and MyAccount. So, while this announcement does not fundamentally change the data customers already have access to, we will be taking steps to mitigate any additional risks associated with access to information through this new initiative.
Hi, will customers be able to access any information about the time of a received call? I understand that information about the caller will not be given, but can we see that a call was taken at all?
Thanks
Thanks for your question – we’ll look into the feasibility of this option as part of developing this new initiative. If you are looking for this information now it is often recorded and available on your mobile device and most fixed line handsets with caller number display functionality also keep logs of calls received.
I was wondering what type of metadata will be available for both the $25 fee and for a ‘more detailed request’? Will it be phone calls, or will it be emails (not limited to) a Telstra email address but ‘over the top’ systems too?
Hi David, good question. It will not relate to services we do not provide, such as an ‘Over The Top’ email service. We will have more detailed information through our web form once the initiative has been launched so please visit https://www.telstra.com.au/privacy from 1 April to find out more. Thanks, Jamie.
How far back does Telstra keep the IP address allocated to a user?
Hi Peter, Telstra’s records on IP addresses vary across different products, including ADSL, HFC and mobile. For some of these products we do keep IP address records for a period of time, for others we don’t. Thanks, Jamie.
My question is, now that the government has put through their metadata legislation how far does the Govt have access to that information, , also do other corporations have access to that data…
We only disclose customer information in accordance with the law and we assess any request for information we receive from government agencies to make sure it complies with the law. We also use some information to develop new products and services so that we better tailor our offers to your needs. This is all detailed in our Privacy Statement here: https://www.telstra.com.au/privacy.
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