A startling report has revealed that Centrelink has the ability to ask the Australian Federal Police to access clients’ metadata — and in some cases even break passwords — if it suspects fraud, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
If you’re a student or you’re on jobseeker and you’re lying about your relationship status to cop a better Centrelink payment, watch out. That unfortunately counts as fraud, as do false claims for disaster payments. If you’ve committed any of these fraudulent behaviours, Centrelink can use these abilities against you.
According to SMH, police can even seize a person’s phone and use password-cracking software to snoop their messages as part of investigations into dodgy behaviour, like whether someone is dating their housemate or not.
Honestly, the fact that police have these powers in regards to people who need money enough to scam payments that are literally below the poverty line… We truly live in a dystopian hell.
A spokesperson for Services Australia told SMH “telecommunications metadata is only used to support potential criminal cases”.
“It is not used in our compliance activities, which aim to prevent avoidable debt as a result of customers being overpaid due to changes of their circumstances,” they said.
However, what they didn’t say was what type of fraudulent behaviour is serious enough to trigger a “potential criminal case”.
They also said the AFP only used password-cracking software on devices that were seized on search warrants which were issued in relation to Commonwealth offences, in accordance with the Crimes Act 1914.
FYI, Services Australia conducted 709 criminal investigations in the 2021-22 financial year, according to SMH, plus around 166,000 “compliance interventions” to prevent people from getting more money than they’re supposed to.
Executive director of pro-privacy charity Digital Rights Watch James Clark slammed the snooping as an overreach by Services Australia.
“People receiving welfare have as much right to privacy and dignity as everybody else,” he said, per SMH.
“Mass surveillance has no place in a democratic society, and it’s deeply concerning to see this surveillance being used to dehumanise welfare recipients.”
Couldn’t agree more, Clark.
If you need me, I’ll be taking on a new life as a troll that lives in a barrel. I’m done with surveillance capitalism.
