New South Wales Law Reform Commission Report 98 Surveillance: an interim report February 2001 New South Wales. Law Reform Commission. Sydney 2001 ISSN 1030-0244 (Report) National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication entry New South Wales. Law Reform Commission. Surveillance: an interim report. Bibliography Includes index ISBN 0 7313 0448 9 1. Electronic surveillance – New South Wales. 2. Electronics in criminal investigation – New South Wales. 3. Privacy, Right of – New South Wales. I. Title. (Series : Report (New South Wales. Law Reform Commission) ; 98). 345.94052 ii New South Wales Law Reform Commission To the Honourable Bob Debus MLC Attorney General for New South Wales Dear Attorney Surveillance: an interim report We make this interim Report pursuant to the reference to this Commission dated 2 July 1996. His Honour Judge Jack Goldring Commissioner-in-Charge The Hon Justice Michael Adams Professor Reg Graycar Vice President Iain Ross February 2001 iii Contents Terms of reference............................................................................. x Participants ........................................................................................xi Executive summary...........................................................................xii The Commission’s recommendations............................................ xviii PART ONE: PRELIMINARY AND DEFINITIONAL ISSUES ... 1 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................... 3 BACKGROUND TO THIS REFERENCE ........................................... 4 PRIVACY ........................................................................................... 4 What we think of as privacy ............................................................... 5 A “right” of privacy?............................................................................ 7 An expectation of privacy................................................................. 10 SURVEILLANCE.............................................................................. 11 Origins.............................................................................................. 14 USES OF SURVEILLANCE DEVICES ............................................ 18 Law enforcement ............................................................................. 19 Public safety and crowd control ....................................................... 20 Protection of personal safety and private property .......................... 21 Media interests................................................................................. 21 Employer interests ........................................................................... 22 EXISTING REGULATION OF SURVEILLANCE.............................. 22 New South Wales ............................................................................ 22 Commonwealth ................................................................................ 23 Other Australian states and territories ............................................. 25 The common law.............................................................................. 26 The LDA is outdated ........................................................................ 32 THE STRUCTURE OF THIS PAPER .............................................. 33 2. FRAMEWORK FOR A NEW SURVEILLANCE LAW................. 35 THE COMMISSION’S APPROACH ................................................. 37 Privacy and surveillance .................................................................. 37 SCOPE OF THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION ................................ 39 Background...................................................................................... 40 Restricting the type of device........................................................... 43 Restricting the type of activity covered ............................................ 46 Restricting who may conduct surveillance ....................................... 51 Definitions ........................................................................................ 53 iv What activity is covered by the definitions?......................................58 What is not covered?........................................................................70 Data surveillance..............................................................................73 REGULATION OF OVERT AND COVERT SURVEILLANCE .........78 Overt surveillance.............................................................................78 Covert surveillance...........................................................................84 The “employment context”................................................................94 Conclusion........................................................................................98 PART TWO: OVERT SURVEILLANCE............................... 101 3. OVERT SURVEILLANCE: ISSUES ..........................................103 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................104 WAYS OF “SEEING” ......................................................................105 PURPOSES OF OVERT SURVEILLANCE....................................106 Protection of people and property ..................................................107 Protection of the public interest ......................................................109 Collection of material for news and entertainment .........................114 Workplace surveillance...................................................................114 PROBLEMS WITH USING OVERT SURVEILLANCE ...................118 Privacy............................................................................................118 Social justice ..................................................................................135 Performance monitoring .................................................................138 THE EFFICACY OF OVERT SURVEILLANCE..............................141 THE FUTURE OF OVERT SURVEILLANCE .................................143 VIEWS CONTAINED IN SUBMISSIONS .......................................148 REGULATION ................................................................................150 How overt surveillance is regulated................................................150 Self-regulation ................................................................................151 Advantages of self-regulation.........................................................151 Shortcomings of self-regulation......................................................152 Recent examples in other privacy-sensitive areas .........................156 4. OVERT SURVEILLANCE: RECOMMENDATIONS ..................161 FINDING A BALANCE....................................................................162 Protecting the rights of all parties ...................................................162 Weighing up the interests...............................................................165 A legislative response.....................................................................167 A SCHEME OF REGULATION ......................................................167 Self-regulation or legislation? .........................................................168 ELEMENTS OF PROPOSED LEGISLATION ................................173 v The requirement to give notice ...................................................... 173 The surveillance user..................................................................... 175 Codes of practice ........................................................................... 176 Overt surveillance principles .......................................................... 179 PRINCIPLE 1 ................................................................................. 180 PRINCIPLE 2 ................................................................................. 182 PRINCIPLE 3 ................................................................................. 183 PRINCIPLE 4 ................................................................................. 184 PRINCIPLE 5 ................................................................................. 185 Public sector .................................................................................. 186 PRINCIPLE 6 ................................................................................. 188 Staff................................................................................................ 188 Surveillance material...................................................................... 190 PRINCIPLE 7 ................................................................................. 191 PRINCIPLE 8 ................................................................................. 192 THE PRIVACY COMMISSIONER’S ROLE.................................... 193 Powers ........................................................................................... 193 THE EMPLOYMENT CONTEXT.................................................... 196 Codes of practice ........................................................................... 197 Performance monitoring................................................................. 198 PART THREE: COVERT SURVEILLANCE ........................ 201 5. COVERT SURVEILLANCE BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS .......................................... 203 INTRODUCTION............................................................................ 204 LISTENING DEVICES ACT 1984 (NSW) .....................................