5G gives the government unparalleled surveillance powers, researchers warn

The tracking accuracy of 5G networks could turn devices into virtual ankle monitors. Image: Jérémy-Günther-Heinz Jähnick through Wikimedia

Fresh fears of potential human rights breaches have surfaced amid a parliamentary review into mandatory data retention laws.

Dr Stanley Shanapinda, a researcher with La Trobe University’s Cyber Security Research Hub, is concerned the small clusters of cells in 5G networks will give law enforcement agencies unnecessary access to extremely precise location data of private citizens.

“Because the powers are so broad right now 5G gives the agencies greater power than ever before,” Shanapinda said.

Under changes made to the Telecommunications Act in 2015, service providers must store data about communications made on their network for at least two years.

Relevant data includes the source, destination, date, time, duration, and location of all connections to a service.

“With location information, the precision now is far better than were the laws were put in place which reveals more sensitive information about you,” Shanapinda said.

“And because of the availability of machine learning, they can use tools to analyse and predict where you will go.”

The laws were designed to standardise data retention across the industry.

When the data retention law was introduced, then-Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the bill was “critical to prevent the capabilities of Australia's law enforcement and national security agencies being further degraded”.

But Shanapinda warns that a combination of broad laws and technological innovation has over-corrected for claimed weaknesses of law enforcement powers.

“There was a lot of discussion about needing to make the laws technology neutral, and we weren’t even thinking about 5G at that particular time,” he said.

“But as the technology continues to advance, the agencies have ended up holding a disproportionate amount of power.”

Australian human rights Commissioner, Edward Santow told Nine newspapers the data retention laws need to be reformed and law enforcement should require a warrant to access the telecommunications data of suspects.

"We say it's worth the effort because people's basic rights are at issue," Mr Santow said.