Surveillance bill to wreak havoc on ‘innocent bystanders’ if passed: LCA By Emma Ryan|15 March 2021 The Law Council of Australia (LCA) has again hit out of the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020, noting the negative flow-on effects it will have if passed. The Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 currently introduced before Parliament aims to broaden powers for the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) to combat serious online crime, including use of the dark web and anonymising technologies. The bill in its current form introduced three measures to aid the AFP and ACIC in its goals: 1. Data disruption warrants, which “will allow the disruption of data through modification and deletion to frustrate the commission of serious offences, such as the distribution of child abuse material”; 2. Network activity warrants, which “will allow the collection of intelligence on serious criminal activity carried out by criminal networks operating online”; and, Account takeover warrants, which “will allow the control of a person’s online account to gather evidence about criminal activity to further a criminal investigation”.