Blanket data retention is no less than state-sanctioned mass surveillance. As a country of immigrants, many of whom came to this land seeking a fairer, more democratic society, Australia would do well to recall that democracy does not easily flourish when governments employ mass surveillance in the name of protecting national security.

The Stasi collected 40 binders – somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000 pages – on Poppe over 15 years. In 2010, Austrian Max Schrems made an access request to Facebook, asking the internet giant to provide him with a copy of all data collected by the company about Schrems since he joined in 2008. He received 1,222 pages relating to his activity on the site over a three year period, including information Schrems believed he had deleted from the site.

One need only consider the many other internet services all Australians use, and the many telecommunications providers who facilitate those individuals’ access to internet services, in order to get a sense of how much metadata exists, and what exactly it might reveal about them. The Stasi’s files pale in comparison.