Name: Marco

Huang
Name: Marco Huang
Student ID:
11702901
Tutor:

ASSESSMENT 1 THE ETHICS OF

METADATA

Tutorial number:

Submission date:

.. FILL IN LATER

Executive Summary
Table of Contents
Introduction
Telecommunication companies are keeping less data and reducing the amount of data
that they stored about customers due to the minimal benefit to their business.
Government organisations in Australia have always been able to access this data by
requesting it from telecommunication companies (source 4) since 1997 according to
section 521 from the Telecommunications Act 1997.
As a result of this trend, problems have arisen for the Australian government.
Government organisations such as the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Police NSW (and
other state police organisations) and ASIO as well as others cannot prevent crimes (and
terrorist plots), monitor the cyberspace and keep the community safe.
The Australian government introduced the Telecommunications (Interception and Access)
Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 (source 2) in late 2014 in order to help assist
them in law enforcement and stopping crimes. The Telecommunications Amendment Bill
2014 passed in March 2015 (source 3) and required telecommunication companies to
keep metadata about customers for the length of two years. According to (SOURCE 3)
metadata is data about what information is being communicated over mediums.
This report will discuss the ethics of the recent legislation. Firstly, there will be a
discussion on the stakeholders relevant to the law, followed by international codes of
ethics and lastly, problems of advancing technology.
1.0 Stakeholder Ethics
1.1 Stakeholder Viewpoints
The key stakeholders relevant to this case are the telecommunication companys chief
executive officer (CEO), customers of the Telecommunications Company, policing and law
enforcement organisations within the government (AFP, Border Force, ASIO, and State
Police, etc.), Australian Privacy Foundation and journalists in Australia. Furthermore, how
the stakeholders see the situation will be dependent on their perspective. The discussion
of the situation and reasoning for these stakeholders thus follows.
For the Telecommunications CEO, the laws will mean that theres a need to understand
the obligations, implement new processes to capture and sort the metadata based on the
customer and increase data storage capabilities. From the perspective of CEOs, it is
essential to know what is required of them to fulfil the obligations in order to stay aligned
with legalities. Once they have understood the obligations, the current system and its
architecture requires modification. Additionally, given that telecommunication companies
have millions of customers that will be lots of data that they need to store. Consequently
it was noted in (source 6) that most ISPs were not ready for the laws, the time length of
six months was still too short and the cost of changes would be expensive.
In relation to the customers of the telecommunications company, they will see the
situation as a chance of mass surveillance in order to track and monitor their actions
easily. Australian organisations will be able to see what they have been accessing, who
they have been calling and even who they have been emailing (source 3). The
reasoning behind this perception towards the situation is that the Australian population
(who are telecommunication customers) do not trust governments (source 5) and dislike
being monitored (source 5.1), ultimately sense that they want to control the population.
Policing and law enforcement organisations (source 2) within the government view this
situation as a means to improve their ability to protect the nation from terrorism and to
thwart terrorist acts in current planning. It would also be helpful to them to have this
metadata, in order to stop fraud, money laundering and other illegal crimes. Without
metadata such as the time of a call or the emails that communicated with each other, it

makes it difficult to build a case against criminals, discover accounts involved in illegal
activities and figure out the locations of crimes.
In the viewpoint of journalists, it there will be threatening of the integrity of their
profession as information sources could be uncovered. Arrests will be made pertaining to
people whom of are interest to the policing and law enforcement organisations, resulting
in journalists being unable to uncover information as well as statistics for news articles
and stories. The reason behind this is that confidential sources should be protected
(Bacon & Nash 1999) otherwise subjects would not speak to journalists.
Finally, the viewpoint of the Australian Privacy Foundation (source 9), which is a non for
profit association that fights for privacy protections is that the situation would result in a
breach of privacy for people and mass surveillance of the population (source 8). This is
under the assertion that there may be a chance of surveillance on a large scale without
the factor of offences or threats being taken in and ones privacy will be eroded due to
the intrusive nature of the metadata collection.
1.2 Areas of Conflict
The major areas of conflict between these perspectives that exist are organisational
readiness verse legal obligations, mass monitoring verse national security and profession
threat verse national security.
With regards to the first conflict (organisational readiness verse legal obligations), the
policing and law enforcement organisations wants organisations to be follow legalities
and store metadata about customers for two years; the majority of telecommunication
companies are not ready for the laws. As noted by (source 6), more than 75% of
telecommunication have had six months until the passing of the legislation and still
cannot comply with them. This was due to the fact that they were unsure of what was
needed to be collected and the complexities of implementing such a system to collect
the data.
The second conflict (mass monitoring verse national security) involves the Australian
Privacy Foundation, telecommunication customers and policing and/or law enforcement
organisations. Law enforcement and policing organisations are pursuing the path of
improving their chances to catch criminals to make the community safer (source 2), the
other two mentioned parties sense that the government is seeking to monitor the nation
and its daily activities.
The final conflict (profession threat verse national security) involves only the journalists
and government organisations. As stated above, the Australian government wants to
improve the safety of the community via having more information about the population,
but this could threaten the occupation of journalists. While safety of a nation is
important, it is vital for journalists to be able to tell important news stories and to
broadcast that to the nation.
1.3 Ethical Views of Stakeholders
According to (source 10), ethics are beliefs that help individuals determine what is right
and what is wrong. Decision making is based on the values that individuals hold, and that
is determined by many factors such as parents, family and schools etc. Moreover, there
are common ethical principles that individuals follow such as relativism,
consequentialism and ethical pluralism, some of which will be discussed in relation to the
stakeholders in this case.
Telecommunication CEOs must attend to a large number of stakeholders (some of whom
have conflicts) and many of those stakeholders are important. Shareholders (whom want
to maximise profits) and government organisations (enforce legislation) are both vital to
telecommunication companies. Given that the telecommunications CEO has many
opposing views and cannot please all pressure groups, ethical pluralism is the most
relevant ethical principle. Under ethical pluralism (source 11), there are many truths
which may be correct and wrong at the same (due to conflict views). Thus a decision

must be made, via the ranking of views within relevance. In this case, legal obligations
take relevance over organisational objectives.
For telecommunication customers and the Australian Privacy Foundation (APF), they are
under the truth that the governments are not trustworthy and that privacy should be
upheld for all citizens of a nation. Furthermore the APF even concluded that human rights
of Australian would be breached. As pointed out by (source 12) the element of a single
truth is central to absolutism (universalism), which would be attributed to this group.
In relation to government law enforcement and policing organisations, such as the AFP
and ASIO, is it a tough decision as they need to make sure the nation is safe, but do not
intend on impeding the privacy of individuals. The decision making process will have
required them to consider the consequences of this action on how governments would
have been perceived and telecommunication companies as well as citizens.
Consequently, under this criterion, the government most took the ethical stance of
consequentialism.
Bacon & Nash (1999) emphasized that journalists have a duty to protect the
confidentiality of sources as it preserves the right for the public to be more informed. This
notion is central for the role for a journalist in their daily occupation from investigative
reporting to general news. Having known from (source 13) that morality is based on
ones duty, which is to protect source confidentiality (in this case), it would be evident
that the relevant ethical viewpoint is deontology.
1.4 Personal assessment
In my opinion, I view this situation through the ethical lens of consequentialism due to
the fact that while I value my dignity and privacy (what I do, when I do it), there is a
trade-off that is required if I want this nation to be safe and secure. That includes
allowing governments to collect metadata on my own communications.
My personal assessments of the stakeholders involved after having considered their
contexts, are that they are justified in their points of view. An individuals privacy should
be universal, journalists do have a duty to protect the confidentiality of sources,
governments do need to look at pros/cons involved in decisions and telecommunication
companies really need to identify what stakeholders come first.
2.0 International Codes of Ethics
2.1 Codes of Conduct
Codes of Conduct are guidelines that inspire good behaviour and discipline members
about how they should act within their profession. For example, in Australia, the law
industry has the Bar Association (source 14) and engineering has the Institute of
Engineers Australia. IT professionals in Australia have no universal code of conduct but
there are a number of professional associations that professionals can sign up to. They
are the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and Sage - AU. One international code of
conduct is ACM (association for computer machinery).
Under the Australian Computer Societys code of conduct (source 15), one must adhere
to five main values. They are the primacy (best interest) of the public interest, honesty,
enhancement of quality of life, competence, professional development (keeping up to
date) and professionalism.
Sage AU (source 16) has nine main principles that adherents must abide by. These
are, fair treatment, privacy, communication, system integration, co operation, honesty,
education, social responsibility and workplace quality. Members must main the
confidentiality of information, treat others fairly, be honest about ones competency and
continue to stay educated.
The association for computer machinery (source 18) states that members must follow
24 imperative that come under 4 sections. These four sections are morals, specific
professional responsibilities, organisational leadership and compliance with the code.
Some of these imperatives under the sections are to contribute to society and human

wellbeing, avoid harming others, be honest and trustworthy, honour property rights and
to respect the privacy of others, etc.
2.2 Codes of Conduct and the case
As stated above in the previous section, codes of conduct are guidelines. Different
guidelines will interpret cases and situations differently due to different values that they
instil within their members.
Under the Australian Computer Society, the values of primacy of the public interest and
the enhancement of quality of life would render the case study as unethical. As shown in
(source 5.1), 39% of Australians approved and just over 50% disapproved of the
proposal to collect metadata. Hence, it can be said that the level of disapproval is greater
than the level of approval and the public interest is to go against the laws (other values
are irrelevant in regards to the case). Additionally the quality of life of Australians would
be reduced as their freedoms and privacy would be reduced and eroded.
In relation to Sage AUs code of ethics, the privacy of information and consistency of
laws in relation to ethical principles would be maintained. Under part 3, section 6.2 of
the Privacy act 1988 (source 5.2), information can be disclosed if it is authorised by law,
so it would still maintain the privacy of information in regards to customers. Additionally,
by staying consistent with the laws, would ensure that social responsibility (source 16)
is maintained, thus it would be ethical under this code.
In regards to the association for computer machinery (ACM) (source 18), the moral
imperatives of confidentiality; privacy of others; contributing to society wellbeing;
avoiding harm to others that are relevant to the case, would not be violated in regards to
this case. This is due to the fact that data retention laws are making the nation safer by
helping law enforcement organisations catch criminals and terrorists. Furthermore, the
adherence of laws would take precedence over confidentiality and the privacy of others.

2.3 Differences Between the Codes

The differences between the Australian Computer Societys (ACS) code of ethics and
Sage- AUs code of ethics are in the scope of the values. Sage AUs code (source 16)
contains values like fair treatment, communication, system integrity, cooperation, social
responsibility and workplace quality, which are not covered in the ACS. The ACS (source
15) contains values such as the primacy of the public interest, the enhancement of
quality of life and professionalism. While the ACS focuses more on benefiting the end
client rather than members, Sage AU focuses more on legal/social issues in IT, working
environments and effective communication.
The differences between the ACM code of ethics (source 18) and the other two ethical
codes are that they drill down deeply into four areas, general morals, specific
professional responsibilities, organisational leadership and compliance with the code. For
example, the ACM mentions items like property rights and proper credits in the general
morals, knowing laws and honouring contracts in the specific professional
responsibilities, etc. Furthermore, there is also a mention of termination of ones
membership in the case of a violation, which is unseen in the other two codes. Thus, it is
more stringent, specific and over encompassing of society as well as business.
3.0 Problems of advancing technology
3.1 Information Ownership
3.2 Copyright
3.3 Harassment
Conclusion

References
1 https://www.ag.gov.au/dataretention
2 https://www.ag.gov.au/NationalSecurity/DataRetention/Pages/Default.aspx
3
https://www.ag.gov.au/NationalSecurity/DataRetention/Documents/Keepingourcommunity
safeFactsheet.pdf
4 http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ta1997214/s521.html
5 http://edelman.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-Edelman-Trust-BarometerAustralia-Press-Release.pdf
5.1 http://www.essentialvision.com.au/retaining-telephone-and-internet-records
5.2 https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/privacy-fact-sheets/general/privacy-fact-sheet-17australian-privacy-principles

6 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-13/majority-of-isps-not-ready-to-start-collectingmetadata/6847370??
7
http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/fullText;dn=200006230;res=IELAPA
((FIX UP))
8 https://www.privacy.org.au/Papers/PJCIS-DataRetention-150119.pdf
9 https://www.privacy.org.au/About/index.html
10 UTS PNP LEC 2
11 https://www.uvu.edu/ethics/seac/Ethical%20Pluralism%20An%20Alternative%20to
%20Objectivism%20and%20Relativism.pdf ((FIX UP)
12 https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30032187/mcdonald-ethicalrelativism-post2010.pdf ((FIX UP))
13 (http://www.jaredwoodard.com/wp-content/uploads/staveren.pdf.. FIX UP
14 http://www.nswbar.asn.au/circulars/2010/feb/rules.pdf
15
16

https://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/4901/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf
https://www.sage-au.org.au/values

18 https://www.acm.org/about-acm/acm-code-of-ethics-and-professional-conduct

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(FIX UP PHRASING in essay