Australians Concerned about Data-Sharing Law’s Impacts on Mental Health Services

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The Australian government “has introduced a bill to make it mandatory for telecommunications companies to store customer information for two years,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald. The plan to store and share meta-data between government agencies about people’s online activities has some mental health organizations worried about the tracking of people’s use of online mental health services.

“While it will not track the content of calls or emails, or website addresses, it could be used to track the sender, time and location of electronic communications, such as those from an online mental health site,” reports the Herald.

“I can’t see a way that feeling safe and having privacy on the internet is compatible with knowing (that) data about you is being systematically logged,” a National Institute for Mental Health Research expert told the Herald.

Australians may forgo online mental health help under new metadata laws (Sydney Morning Herald, December 27, 2014)

3 COMMENTS

  1. “I can’t see a way that feeling safe and having privacy on the internet is compatible with knowing (that) data about you is being systematically logged,” a National Institute for Mental Health Research expert told the Herald.

    Don’t they mean a person suffering from paranoid delusions told the Herald? Oh that’s right, it’s only paranoid delusions when it is someone suspected of having a mental illness, otherwise it’s a perfectly rational concern.

    Saying this resulted in the first of the grounds for detaining me under the mental Health Act. The double standards are astounding huh?

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    • I wonder what about these people who wee deemed crazy because they said the government was spying on them, watching them through little cameras installed in their homes and so on? I mean if your paranoia is 100% justified it’s not really paranoia anymore, right?

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