Speaking to the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, the Attorney-General’s Department argued in support of extending Australia’s Telecommunications Act to cover over-the-top providers, ZDNet reports. As it stands now, OTT providers and social media platforms fall outside the purview of the 2015 act. Under the act, information, including customers' call records, location information, IP addresses and billing information, is required to be stored for two years by telcos and be accessible without a warrant from law enforcement agencies. Included at the hearing were representatives from the Australian Institute of Criminology, Australian Border Force, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. AGD Assistant Secretary Andrew Warnes said the expansion would help combat the "challenge of encryption."
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