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AusAlert: Safety System or Surveillance Tool? · The Slippery Slope

• 0:00
  OK, so Oz Alert arrived with a bit of a thud, literally
• 0:03
  blasting through every phone in the country, whether you wanted
• 0:07
  it, whether you liked it or not. And at the time we were told it
• 0:09
  was about safety emergencies and keeping Australians safe,
• 0:13
  keeping Australians informed. And why would we ever doubt what
• 0:17
  the government tells us? But let's look at what's
• 0:20
  happened after the you know that the alert came out, the testing
• 0:24
  came out, we've got a few questions and the questions are
• 0:27
  simple. Where has OS alert gone and what
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  has it become? Because what we're seeing now
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  isn't just a safety system, it's a compliance system, it's a
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  behavioural tool and it may be the beginning of something far
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  more concerning a government controlled communication channel
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  that bypasses consent and bypasses freedom.
• 0:52
  So let's look at what has actually happened since the
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  rollout. Alert was sold as a national
• 1:09
  Emergency Alert system, a way to inform, a way to warn people
• 1:14
  about disasters, a tool to keep Australians safe.
• 1:18
  But since the rollout, several things have become clear.
• 1:21
  It's not optional. Well, I said since the rollout,
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  just since the testing anyway, these things have become clear.
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  It's not optional. You can't opt out, you can't
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  silence it, you can't block it, you can't choose how you will
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  receive it. The government now has a Direct
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  Line into your phone overriding your settings.
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  The second thing that we've seen is it's not limited to
• 1:43
  emergencies. Early messaging suggested would
• 1:48
  be used sparingly, but already alerts have expanded beyond life
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  threatening emergencies. So this is how systems creep
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  you. You start off with them only for
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  emergencies, only for major incidents, only for public
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  safety, or only for important announcements, or only for
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  compliance notices. The slope is slippery because
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  the definition of important is political.
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  Next it it conditions behaviour. The first Oz alert wasn't just a
• 2:21
  test, it was a psychological exercise.
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  It taught people the government can interrupt you at any time,
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  your phone belongs to the system when needed, compliance is
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  expected and resistance is futile.
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  Was it the Borg that said that? I can't remember.
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  This is how you normalise control.
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  So you got to ask, should we be concerned?
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  Short answer, yes. Not because of what Ozalert is
• 2:52
  today, but because of what it can become.
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  So the first concern, centralised control over
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  communication. Ozalert bypasses your carrier,
• 3:04
  it bypasses your apps, your settings, your consent.
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  It is a government controlled broadcast channel into every
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  citizen's pocket. That is unprecedented in
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  Australia. The second concern is the
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  expansion of use cases. History shows that once a
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  government gains a new power, it rarely gives it back.
• 3:25
  Now, I know what you're saying, Jay.
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  We can all trust the Australian government to do the right
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  thing. Now, of course, I agree with
• 3:32
  you. But let's look at it.
• 3:33
  You know, I'll be the devil's advocate to say Oz Alert could
• 3:38
  easily expand to public order notices, protest warnings,
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  misinformation alerts, compliance reminders, curfew
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  announcements, behavioural directives, all justified under
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  public safety. The third concern would be data
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  and surveillance integration. So Ozalert itself isn't
• 4:00
  surveillance, and I do know just a little bit about surveillance,
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  but it fits perfectly into a broader ecosystem, the ecosystem
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  of digital ID, metadata retention, geolocation tracking,
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  emergency powers, expanded police authority, social media
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  regulation. Ozalert is a it's broadcast.
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  It's the broadcast arm of a system that already collects
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  enormous amounts of data. The 4th concern conditioning the
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  public to accept intrusion. The real danger isn't the alert,
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  it's the normalisation of government intrusion.
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  If people accept forced alerts, forced compliance, forced
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  communication, then they will accept forced tracking, forced
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  digital identity and forced behavioural monitoring.
• 5:00
  Ozalert is a test of public tolerance.
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  So you have to ask yourself, is Ozalert another tool to diminish
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  freedom? Blunt's answer is yes, it can be
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  my opinion, not because of what it does today, but I think of
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  it's because of what it enables tomorrow.
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  Governments rarely introduce control systems all at once.
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  They introduce them in increments.
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  So Ozalert is it's small, It's simple, seemingly harmless and
• 5:37
  easy to justify, easy to defend and easy to expand.
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  It's the perfect Trojan horse. And once people accept that the
• 5:47
  government can override their phone, the next step becomes
• 5:52
  easier. Is it a surveillance tool?
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  Technically, Ozalert is not surveillance, but practically it
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  fits into a surveillance ecosystem.
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  Ozalert, it identifies your device, it confirms your
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  location within a broadcast zone, it confirms your phone is
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  active and it confirms your network connection and it
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  confirms your compliance. It doesn't track you, but it
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  verifies you. And verification is the
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  foundation of surveillance. So when I, when I did
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  surveillance, physical surveillance before you would
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  have an operation going, you would start out with a probe
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  because maybe you don't know enough, maybe they don't have
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  enough information. So you'll go out and you'll do
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  what's known as a probe. You'll be probing.
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  So what is it when you'll, when you're in this probe stage and
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  you want to go into an actual operation, you want to justify
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  why you want to go into an operation.
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  So the when you're in this probe stage, that's when you're
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  verifying, You're verifying a person's identity, you're
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  verifying their movements, you're verifying where they
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  live, What Car they drive, who they interact with.
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  You need verification of who they are.
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  So Ozalert is the ping, digital ID is the profile and metadata
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  is it's the trail. AI analysis is the interruption,
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  the government policy is the justification.
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  So together they form a system capable of monitoring and
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  directing behaviour. Ozalert is one more brick in
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  that wall. OK, so look, Scripture warns
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  repeatedly about systems of control that grow slowly and
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  deceptively. I just want to remind you of
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  what, because I've spoken about it numerous times here.
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  Revelation 1316 to 17. It describes this world where
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  buying, selling, and movement are controlled by a central
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  authority. Now, OS Alert isn't that system,
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  but it is the kind of mechanism that makes such a system
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  possible. In Isaiah 10 one, it says that
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  woe to those who decree unjust statutes.
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  Emergency powers often become permanent powers.
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  So I'll just close with this. OK, Oz Alerts may have started
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  as a safety tool, but safety is always the easiest justification
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  for control. The question isn't what Oz Alert
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  is today. The question is what it will
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  become tomorrow. Because once a government gains
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  the power to override your phone, your settings, and your
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  consent, it won't stop there. Freedom isn't lost in one
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  dramatic moment. It's surrendered one alert at a
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  time. Of course, all of this is just
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  my opinion. I'm Jay Fallon, and thanks for
• 9:10
  listening to the Slippery Slope Podcast.