Edward Snowden Spat Straight Twitter Fire Over New Data Retention Laws

Beginning today, if you are Australian, everything you do online is being tracked, stored, and retained for 2 years. https://t.co/g8etUYgHGr

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 12, 2015

Australia now records what you do online for 2 years. How to keep it private, via @Asher_Wolf:http://t.co/DcIuDsvXK9 pic.twitter.com/fTZ0LVVuit

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 12, 2015

The new laws mean that every piece of communications “metadata” – info like who you email, when you called someone, and how long the call went for – can be retained, and possibly used as evidence against you in court.

If that doesn’t strike fear into your heart, Snowden has some choice words for you too:

Surveillance is not about safety, it’s about power. It’s about control.
http://t.co/xKds51UmSX pic.twitter.com/f7wD0YHmTQ

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 12, 2015

Defending a right is not about of something to hide. It’s about something to lose.
https://t.co/NE4lCYzeKf

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 12, 2015

Ask yourself: at every point in history, who suffers the most from unjustified surveillance? It is not the privileged, but the vulnerable.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 12, 2015

Australia’s biggest telco’s are freaking out about the new regulations as well, and many are totally up shit creek in regards to even storing all of that information: again, that’s the context of every phone call, email, Tweet, kept on ice. For two years. 

Tweeting while hiding somewhere in Russia, it’s obvious ol’ mate Eddie is definitely not down with the news either. And if there’s anyone on the planet more qualified to drag data retention laws, we’d like to know about it.