Australian ISPs are happy to retain personal subscriber data for up to a year as part of government efforts to bring its cybercrime laws inline with international standards.
Operators and ISPs have reportedly already approved legislative changes considered necessary to introduce the Council of Europe’s Prevention of Cybercrime treaty.
Attorney general Robert McClelland revealed that legal changes would be required in a consultation document released late last week, because the global treaty is designed to make it easier for foreign authorities to access online user information.
Telcos and ISPs have already agreed to comply with the proposed new regime, the Australian reported.
McClelland admits that data gathered from sources including e-mail surveillance and call interception would likely be held far longer than the 90 days specified by the treaty – possibly for up to a year, ZDNet Australia said.
The treaty already has the participation of 45 member nations, including non-European countries such as Japan, the US and Canada.
It aims to make international enforcement of internet-related offenses – including fraud, child pornography and international copyright violation – easier to pursue.
While some European nations want to increase the minimum term for data retention to five years, McClelland said Australia and the US consider that to be excessive.