I mailed this letter to my representatives yesterday, and also by email.
Dear Senator,
I am a member of your constituency, the owner of a successful small business of ten years, husband, and father.
I oppose mandatory data retention in Australia. As my representative, I am asking you to reject any proposal implementing data retention in Australia, and any other increased surveillance of citizens.
The concept that innocence is presumed until guilt is proven is a cornerstone of our culture and the justice system in our nation. I value my digital privacy. When I use the Internet, I want secure, private communication. I don't want to be surveilled and spied upon when I am not suspected of a crime.
Mandatory data retention will be costly to Internet Service Providers and other technology-oriented businesses such as mine. These measures are bad for business and bad for the economy.
Stronger surveillance does not make us safer, it make us less safe. The presumption that entities tasked with surveilling will not make mistakes with our data, or face any type of corruption is not correct. As you know, corruption exists and mistakes with data often happen - they are unfortunately inevitable.
Our systems of justice and intelligence gathering should protect citizens against corruption and mistakes as much as they do against other threats. We already have processes such as warrants that law enforcement and intelligence agencies can legally use to carry out investigations and prosecute criminals. We should not be making special cases that will harm our culture later on just because people feel irrationally fearful.
Courts around the world are finding data retention mandates unconstitutional because they violate individual privacy rights. Let's do the right thing in Australia and stop these proposals before they become the law.
Please protect my family, my children, and myself from surveillance and data retention. Please reject any proposal implementing data retention in Australia, and any other increased surveillance of citizens.
Thank you for your time.
Best regards,
Chris McCormick.
Some of the text in this letter comes from the Stop The Spies website..