Australian law enforcement and regulatory agencies requested customer information from Telstra more than 40,000 times, or more than 200 times a day, during the second half of 2013, the telco has revealed.
The information has been published in Telstra’s first “transparency report”, highlighting how often law enforcement uses telecoms data during investigations.
Telstra’s report covers the period from July 1 to December 31 last year, and shows that government agencies requested customer information – such as names, addresses and payment details – from Telstra some 36,053 times.
Actual calls and communications were intercepted by agencies 1450 times throughout the period.
Data covering life-threatening situations and emergency calls totalled 2871 requests, and some 270 court orders were issued to Telstra during the six months.
Telstra did not reveal which agencies had requested the data, but a Financial Review report says agencies as diverse as local governments and RSPCA branches have used the federal powers to issue warrants or court orders to telecommunications companies and ISPs as part of investigations.
