The background: Speaking to Sky News, Australia's Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that there were "always ways for people to get around things." As The Guardian reported, Turnbull went on to list a few ways to dodge the new law: "If... I communicate with you via Skype, for a voice call, or Viber, or I send you a message on Whatsapp or Wickr or Threema or Signal or Telegram—there's a gazillion of them—or indeed if we have a Facetime call, then all that the telco can see insofar as it can see anything is that my device has had a connection with, say, the Skype server or the Whatsapp server… it doesn’t see anything happen with you."
The “new” definition of metadata in Australia Law:
- Metadata is the information that identifies us via the phone calls we make and our active online lives.
- When put together it can reveal a detailed picture of an individual's identity and their relationships.
- Essentially, it is an electronic x-ray of the when, where, how and to whom we communicate with over our phones and via the internet.
The Global: Australia is going in the opposite direction of the US and UK with its proposed metadata laws which threaten to usher in a new dark age of investigative journalism. The author has pointed out that Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations. (Nick Xenophon. From ABC NEWS)
In Marketing: this idea specifically impact brands, agencies, and the marketing industry. There are two things: a potential data breach, and an increase in consumers’ use of privacy tools. The author mentions that the increase in media coverage of data retention has also resulted in increased coverage of privacy tools. Second, digital advertising today relies on the collection and analysis of metadata in order to deliver more relevant ads. Higher relevance results in higher yields for publishers. (Nic, Hodges. From Mumbrella)
As a result, the use of tools to regain personal privacy will increase – a potentially costly outcome for Australian publishers and advertisers. And with a higher level of privacy, the ability for brands to connect with relevant digital audiences at scale will drastically decrease. (Nic, Hodges. From Mumbrella)
In conclusion, the people, the law maker and people has their say, however, with this new policy you have to adjust your marketing strategy in the region to your brands, products and marketing spending.
Image source: www.au.in-cafe.eu
Read more:
- Australian government minister: Dodge new data retention law like this
- Australia passes controversial new metadata law
- Data retention: What is metadata and how will it be defined by new Australia laws?
- Data retention laws pass Federal Parliament as Coalition and Labor vote together
- How will data retention affect the marketing industry?
- Metadata laws: journalists will remain unprotected
- Metadata and telcos: Get ready for casualties
- Will Australia's metadata retention scheme track your digital browser fingerprints?