Dear Hasbeen,

How's it going old cock? Good?

Heads must roll you say?

Good. How about we start with LNP ex-Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher.

It appears it was he and Dutton who exempted his former employee OPTUS from the more stringent provisions of the security legislation set up in part to deal with things like data breaches.

Yup, Paul Fletcher, from the government you kept defending, was the OPTUS director of corporate and regulatory affairs for 8 years before entering politics and becoming Communications Minister.

Here is a link to OPTUS's submission asking that they not be subjected to the same rules being dealt out to other major corporations and government organisations.
http://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/critical-infrastructure-consultation-submissions/EDS103-CISoNS-Optus.PDF

What a tawdry, useless, craven and beholden bunch of clowns the last government turned out to be, and you backed them all the way. Thank god some adults are in charge now.

Do I real think you would turn against them and ask for some accountability? Not really, but it was worth letting you know.

Little value in turning this into a partisan tit for tat. All political parties have been seduced by the idea that when you deregulate you increase productivity and that it will be in the company's interest to behave responsibily and ethically.
The problem is that the priority of all corporations is to maximize profits; the law and regulations are their only constraint. (and even hen they calculate the cost of any fines against income generated.) The difference between the Coalition and the ALP is largely a matter of degree.
Optus and indeed most other companies have learnt that there are profits to be made from data harvesting so they collect as much as they can and then monetize it.
This is why it is so important that Optus be hit with heavy penalties - current legislation is such that the fines can be paid from their petty cash hardly an incentive to behave more responsibly.

Just saw this comment:

"I have been continually surprised and disappointed at the number of people I know who do not seem particularly disturbed by the collection of their data by others. With regard to cell phones they seem to think that it’s their phone, and they pay for it, so they have control."

Dear BAYGON,

Little value you say?

I would disagree.

Properly regulating our capitalist system is the very real responsibility of government.

If obvious conflicts of interest are not called out then the capture of government by corporate interests goes on unchecked. Self regulation is a joke and post offence penalties do not prevent breaches happening in the first place.

Decent regulation helps pre-empt these things occurring, as it should. When corporations are allowed to lobby government ministers, particularly those who were former employees, to be allowed to avoid such regulations then we have a serious problem.

A few weeks ago I was about to buy a ticket in an RSL lottery at a shopping centre but had to give them my name, email address and phone number so they could "sent me a receipt". I would have been happy with just a ticket but they insisted I had no option but to provide that extra data.

Places like Bunnings, Officeworks and JB HiFi also offer digital receipts but they are just another way of building a personal profile of every consumer and their individual spending habits to be potentially on-sold to others and progressively compiled with more information as it came in.

I sponsor various charities throughout the year but am constantly besieged by others because my phone number seems to have been placed on a list of potential donors.

Sites like Facebook are also mined for personal data and people should be wary and vigilant about what information they give away.

This is worth a look -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7pYHN9iC9I

Baycom & perhaps others;
At the medical centre I attend there is another patient with the same
name so when booking they often ask for my date of birth.