No One Asked me !!

[Abraxas]

I'm a Telstra/Bigpond user. That's my contract for my phone line, and my ADSL2+ Internet connection.

Some 4.2 million email accounts will fall under foreign jurisdictions.

Telstra has confirmed that the emails of its 4.2 million BigPond customers will be hosted offshore under a planned migration to the Windows Live cloud platform.  

The telco, which announced the migration on Friday, originally told iTnews and several other publications that email data will continue to be stored locally in Australia.

This was not incorrect.

What Telstra hasn’t made public on its web site is that Microsoft will be hosting the service offshore. Telstra will simply store a mirror (copy) of this data in Australia to remain compliant with Australian law.
 
"Microsoft stores their emails as per Microsoft's network architecture and their responsibility,” a Telstra spokesman confirmed with iTnews.

This revelation could have significant consequences for small businesses that rely on BigPond email services.

As a business, storing email data offshore is mired in legal complications.

As first revealed in iTnews’ Cloud Cover research report by lawyer Mark Vincent, many cloud contracts subject data to the laws of the jurisdiction in which the data is stored rather than where business is transacted.

If Microsoft stores BigPond email data in its Singapore data centre, for example, the data becomes subject to the laws of the Singaporean state, which has far fewer requirements around privacy.

If Microsoft and Telstra stores BigPond email data in its United States data centre, the data becomes subject to US laws such as the Patriot Act, which also provides US law enforcement unbridled access to US-hosted data without requiring a court order.

Read more by hitting link above.


As a Telstra Bigpond customer, I will not use my @bigpond email account any longer as these changes go against my standards; ethical and security.

Some notification of this by Telstra in an obtuse area of their website.
http://go.bigpond.com/emailupdate/

I can't find it at the moment, but menotu posted a piece about Bigpond losing hundreds of Email addresses and passwords online, within the last month or so.
I changed my password at the time.
_________________________________________________________________________
More silly stuff in Australia.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/290150,parliament-quietly-blocks-info-domains.aspx


The Department of Parliamentary Services has blocked access by Australia's parliamentarians to some 5.2 million websites with a .info domain.

The block, put in place on October 22 last year, was put in place on the advice of the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD).

“The advice was that the domain is generally considered to be a source of more than its fair share of attacks and malicious software,” the department's acting secretary David Kenny told a Senate Committee in Canberra today.

Since being instituted, the department has unblocked access to 68 .info sites on request.

Senators are unable to opt-out of the block on .info domains for network security reasons.

“More than a year on from the defeat of the Government’s proposed mandatory net filter, Australia’s parliamentarians have instead elected to heavily filter their own web access,” Senator Scott Ludlam said after the meeting.

“I could walk to the nearest public library and access a .info website but they are banned to people working within the Commonwealth parliament.

"I spent two years campaigning to prevent a filter being imposed on the general public, who might now appreciate the irony of a vastly more expansive filter being imposed on MPs.”

“Hopeless” Parliamentary Website upgrade
The Estimates Committee also probed why the launch of a new Parliamentary House website had slipped by about a year and incurred additional costs of over $614,000.

“That’s pretty hopeless, isn’t it?,” Senator John Faulkner commented.
+1  

It' s a mighty huge amount of money for a website !! Corrupt is the word that pops into my mind .

[Just18]

I really like this bit .....

"Microsoft stores their emails as per Microsoft's network architecture and their responsibility,” a Telstra spokesman confirmed with iTnews.

.....  seems MS owns all those emails .......

[menotu]

Mebbe Telstra are "stepping back" and can "blame" Microsoft if similar to this occurs:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,100477.0.html

[Abraxas]

I really like this bit .....

"Microsoft stores their emails as per Microsoft's network architecture and their responsibility,” a Telstra spokesman confirmed with iTnews.

.....  seems MS owns all those emails .......

Yes Just18, seems an odd move for the Major telecommunications provider to take, handing storage of Emails, as you say 'ownership' to MS. I'm not sure if Telstra pay MS for this service, or if Telstra get money out of doing this, will dig a bit deeper, as I'm obviously interested. Telstra couldn't have chosen a worse company to hop into bed with !

 If you look at menotu's link (Thanks for posting that menotu  ) Telstra's record of keeping Data safe, is less than brilliant  
When the Aus Government privatised their telecommunications service, the infrastructure came with it; that's why I use them, as they own the lines, etc. Every other Telco has to 'rent' or pay a surcharge to use the lines, plus can't repair any faults. Sounds like a Monopoly  
I certainly won't be using Telstra's Email service, not that I do much. Your ISP's Email Addy generally is something you like to keep safe.

[Just18]

When the Aus Government privatised their telecommunications service, the infrastructure came with it;

Same thing done here years ago ......  and it was the beginning of the end .....  the company has been bought and sold a number of times since, each time being asset stripped, until now there is nothing only a huge debt and few upgrades and bad service.

The distribution network (wires) should have remained nationalised ........

[Abraxas]

The distribution network (wires) should have remained nationalised ........

Exactly, as it's an unfair playing field.
The Australian Government has been 'negotiating' a Fibre Optic Network (NBN - Nation Broadband Network) with Telstra for five years or so, but it will only happen when the existing infrastructure, Copper wire, has died, and Telstra is given Billions of dollars, by our Government to put in optical fibre, from the way things have fallen into a stalemate. No one is sure who will own the Optical Fibre Network once it's built, errrm. In the meantime, Telstra share holders, and Users are screaming.

If my Email account can't be kept here in Australia, goodness knows what is on the cards for future Internet Service Providers. Maybe MS will take over building the Fiber optic Network ? Or McDonalds