WA Government allegedly breached surveillance laws with traffic monitoring technology

Motorists have had their everyday movements monitored by the Western Australian Government, according to the state's top auditor, in what is alleged to be a violation of surveillance laws.

It's claimed Main Roads Western Australia continued to operate 180 devices on local roads – said to be used to monitor congestion – despite the department reportedly being aware it was in breach of the law for years.

According to a report published by the state's Auditor General, Caroline Spencer, Main Roads knowingly continued to use the technology on local roads, despite an update to the regulations in 2016 only allowing for their limited use on highways and main roads.

It's alleged the department continued to illegally use the traffic monitoring devices for four years before beginning to lobby the government to amend the laws in early 2020 – so far, it has been unsuccessful in changing the regulations.

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Western Australian Transport Minister Rita Saffioti attempted to downplay the report, claiming it boils down to the definition of what defines a 'local road' versus a 'highway or main road'.

"Despite being aware they are not permitted to, [Main Roads] has continued to collect anonymous data from local road users under the Surveillance Devices Regulations 1999," Ms Spencer said in a written statement.

"We have recommended they comply with the regulations," she said.

The report claims Main Roads collected MAC (Media Access Control) addresses from motorists – a unique identifying number allocated to electronic devices with Bluetooth capability such as mobile phones – holding the information for up to 30 days, despite telling the Auditor General the data was only kept for one day.

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"While MAC addresses aren't considered to be personal information on their own, they can be used to track individuals," the report said, but acknowledged "we found no instances of [Main Roads] doing this."

In addition to the allegations, the Auditor General claims Main Roads' security systems were insufficient, and were open to being "compromised and traffic operations disrupted".

The report also recommended the government department promptly increase security measures, as well as ensuring only those who are authorised be able to access the system.