Greg Tanzer, commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has called for greater phone-tapping authority to help stymie financial fraud and insider trading, The Australian Financial Review reports. Tanzer said law enforcement agencies are prohibited from sharing data that could be beneficial to the ASIC “because of restrictions in the Telecommunications Interception and Access Act,” adding, “We consider that situation to be highly inefficient and unjustifiable in principle.” The proposal may raise civil liberty and privacy concerns, the report states. Acting Victoria Privacy Commissioner Anthony Bendall recently said phone call and Internet data retention proposals are “characteristic of a police state.”
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