Australian Data Retention Proposal = Stalin's Wet Dream [updated]

I barely have time to look up these days but when I do it's normal to discover Australian Politicians finding new ways to waste public money on inefficient and unecessary things. The 'data retention' scheme is one such, with the added of bonus of highlighting what an oppressive communist country we have become. It's back in the news because our government has estimated the cost - they want to spend over AUD$400 Million to systematically retain national communications 'metadata'¹ for a period of two years. Exactly which element about the proposal most offends me is difficult to determine ... possibly that whoever has the motive to circumvent the monitoring will definitely have the means to do so, and that for the most part the ability to track all this stuff is already in place and can be obtained should the target be important enough. The cost is apparently an ongoing one, in terms of sheer economic brilliance it's right up there with Kevin Rudd in 2008 giving out free 'stimulus' money to everyone including backpackers and some on temporary work visas.

BullionVault took my Gram (back)

A little while back BullionVault placed their bar lists under password protection, meaning that only registered users could download the full list. Automated downloading is the primary technique I use to get hold of my bar lists for the database, so for BullionVault I had to program a special emulation to bypass that requirement (this task was successful, but annoying). Part of the necessary parts was to have an actual account, so I signed up.

I was delighted when as part of the client experience, they gave me a gram of gold to start the account with. I felt richer, by the magnitude of one gram of gold, and to be honest felt a little smug having added some of the good stuff to my net worth, however small. I wondered a little about the business model but really gave it no second thought beyond the semantics of redeeming my one gram (the downloads were working, which was all I wanted).

About a month ago, I received the following email:

Dear BullionVault user,

We are about to reclaim the free gram of gold you received when you first registered your account 'BULLIONBARZ' with us.

As I'm sure you recall, it was given on a "Use it or lose it" basis.

And with new enquiries now running at very high volumes here at BullionVault, it's time to give someone else the same opportunity that you had.