Implications Of Australian Metadata Retention Laws On Privacy And Web Metrics

Definition of privacy

Discuss about the Australian Metadata Retention Laws.

The essay discusses the term “Privacy” by referring to Metadata retention law, which is a scheme that is allegedly being implemented for protecting the country against various types of crimes as well as terrorism (Lindsay et al., 2015). The main aim of the essay is to illustrate the implications of privacy in context to web metrics as well as web data. The essay also illustrates the Contribution of Metadata retention laws in understanding the role of web metrics and web data in today’s world.

Definition of privacy

Privacy is defined as an ability of a group or an individual to seclude the information, which is associated with them. The content as well boundaries, which are considered private, differs among various cultures as well as individuals. The domain of security is overlapped with the help of privacy, which includes proper use, as well as protection of information (Martin, Borah & Palmatier, 2017). It has been analyzed that privacy can be sacrificed voluntarily in exchange for various perceived benefits. Data privacy is a type of privacy that is also known as information privacy, which deals with various capabilities of an organization as well as individuals for determining the sharing of data, by third parties (Williams & Hardy, 2015). Privacy of data is enacted in a sectorial method that is helpful in creating a response towards the needs as well as requirements of some specific section or industry.

Metadata retention law reflects that it is mainly implemented for protecting the country against various types of organized terrorism as well as crime but it is slammed as one of the major invasion of privacy.  The metadata retention law was introduced by Tony Abbott’s Liberal government into the parliament (Greenleaf, 2015).  At that particular time, a plan was introduced by Attorney Roxon and it is identified that the plan is identical with the plans that is followed by the country (Clarke, 2015). The main intention that is present behind the proposed reform is to allow law enforcement agency to continue proper investigation of crime in the light of new technologies. Prime Minister “Malcolm Turnbull was against the law and as a result he sternly opposed the law (North, 2016). After two years, Attorney and Tony Abbot introduced the scheme of data retention again and Turnbull has been asked for creating the full scheme. According to the government, all the new measures were introduced in the name of protecting the country from various threats (Lindsay et al., 2015). UK also adopted a similar type of retention law for minimizing the crimes.

Implementation of Metadata retention laws in Australia

Metadata is essentially considered as the data of data. This is because a metadata around a phone call is helpful in providing all the information that is associated with the call. It generally includes everything that is done on the internet whether legally or illegally (Clarke, 2015) It helps in providing all the information about an email that is sent including its recipients, subject, and time (Martin, Borah & Palmatier, 2017). It also helps in providing information about the location of a photo, the setting as well as the model of the camera with which the picture is taken (Sarre, 2015). Tracking of information requires a large amount of money as tracking of metadata will be helpful in burdening ISPs as well as Telco with very much massive bills.

 It is analyzed that the law appeared to be one of the most important scheme for protecting the country from crimes as well as terrorism but some people believe it as one of the biggest intrusion of policy in the history of Australia (Williams & Hardy, 2015). The most important thing is that every call, text message, email etc are tracked by the government under the law (Martin, Borah & Palmatier, 2017).  It helps in providing us the tool that helps in ensuring the people about the threats of the country. The most significant information is that both the mobile service providers as well as internet providers needs to collect their metadata for two years (Shanapinda, 2017). It is the advice of law enforcement as well as security agency to retain data for two years, as it is very much needed for investigating complex as well as serious criminal matters (Lindsay et al., 2015).  The request that is made by the agency helps in relating it to some straightforward as well as simple cases, which can be resolved very easily (Huston, 2015). It is identified that complex as well as serious cases including espionage, organized crime, financial crime, terrorism as well as the cases of public corruption needs very much lengthy investigations.

Data plays one of the central roles in all the serious criminal as well as national security investigations therefore it is very much critical that both the security as well as law enforcement agencies must have the capability of accessing the data lawfully (Lindsay et al., 2015). It has been analyzed that data retention plans are very much useful for security but it threatens the privacy (Guild & Carrera, 2014). The tracking data, emails, phone calls threatens the privacy of the users but on the other hand, it helps in gaining proper informant information, which is helpful in minimizing as well as avoiding cases of terrorism as well as crime.

Role of metadata retention laws in understanding the role of web metrics and web data

Contribution of Metadata retention laws in understanding the role of web metrics and web data

Metadata retention helps in providing security to a country by minimizing the chances of crime as well as terrorism but it enhances privacy related risks. Similarly, web metrics are used for tracking significant information.  Numerous web metrics are useful in tracking. It helps in tracking the number of visitors, referrals, bounce rate, exit pages, conversion rate and many more of a website (Gorman, Rowley & Walton, 2015). The web metrics is quite helpful in tracking the number of visitors who visited the website for performing various activities. The tracking of information about website visits does not help in revealing important information about the users, and as a result, privacy of the users is not threatened.

The web metrics helps in tracking referral by getting information from the links that are visited by the users. The report of referrals helps in reflecting the number of visitors who are getting into the social media (Usher, 2013). It is also useful in getting information about other countries blogs as well as their search engines.  The web metrics helps in reflecting the bounce rate of the website, which demonstrates that the user does not the information that they are searching for. It has both advantages as well as disadvantages and as a result, Google does not share information about their search term data in order to maintain privacy.

Conversion rate is considered as one of the important feature that is tracked for achieving a specific goal of the website. Goals of the website include completing purchase, filling contract form or visualizing proper contract page (Guild & Carrera, 2014). Conversion rate helps in measuring the success of the website, which is helpful in attracting more number of customers towards the website. Proper monitoring of conversion rate is also helpful in getting information about the site. If conversion rate is combined with the referral report then one should be able to see which sites are generating highest bounce.

It has been analyzed that metadata retention plays a significant role in providing security for minimizing crime cases but on the other hand, it threatens the privacy of the people (Gorman, Rowley & Walton, 2015). For example, it provides information about an email that is sent including its recipients, subject, and time, location of a photo, the setting as well as the model of the camera with which the picture is taken (Gorman, Rowley & Walton, 2015).  However, web metrics helps in analyzing only important information like number of visitors, referrals, of a website for increasing the productivity as well as service of the organization by not harming the privacy of the users (Martin, Borah & Palmatier, 2017).  It also helps in reflecting the bounce rate of the website, which demonstrates that the user for demonstrating the search engine of the users.

Conclusion

It was concluded that metadata retention law is quite significant for providing security in order to minimize terrorism as well as crime within a country but on the other hand, it threatens the privacy of the users, which is considered as serious issue.  It is analyzed that the domain of security is overlapped with the help of privacy, which includes proper use, as well as protection of information. It is identified that web metrics are useful in tracking the number of visitors, referrals, bounce rate, exit pages, conversion rate and many more of a website by not threatening the privacy of the users. As a result, it is very much helpful as it helps in tracking proper as well as significant information for enhancing the productivity of an organization.

References

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Gorman, G. E., Rowley, J., & Walton, G. (2015). Web Metrics for Library and Information Professionals. Online Information Review.

Greenleaf, G. (2015). Going against the flow: Australia enacts a data retention law.

Guild, E., & Carrera, S. (2014). The political and judicial life of metadata: Digital rights Ireland and the trail of the data retention directive.

Huston, G. (2015). Metadata Retention and the Internet. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 3(1).

Lindsay, D. F., Greenleaf, G., Daly, A., Waters, N., Molnar, A., & Vaile, D. (2015). Australian Privacy Foundation Submission on the Data Retention Bill 2014.

Martin, K. D., Borah, A., &Palmatier, R. W. (2017). Data privacy: Effects on customer and firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), 36-58.

North, J. (2016). Metadata: It's not about you after all. Governance Directions, 68(2), 96.

Sarre, R. (2015). Metadata retention: A review of the policy implications for Australians. CRIME, JUSTICE AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 3RD, 9.

Shanapinda, S. (2017). Retention and disclosure of location information and location identifiers OTT content and communication services. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 4(4), 251-279.

Usher, N. (2013). Al Jazeera English online: Understanding web metrics and news production when a quantified audience is not a commodified audience. Digital Journalism, 1(3), 335-351.

Williams, G., & Hardy, K. (2015). National security reforms stage three: Metadata. LSJ: Law Society of NSW Journal, 2(1), 70.