A PRIVATEintelligence company has been engaged by police to secretly monitorinternet and email use by activist and protest groups, a report says.
Thecompany was hired to monitor and report on the internet activities ofanti-war campaigners, animal rights activists, environmentalcampaigners, and other protest groups, Fairfax Media reported.
It was hired by Victorian Police, the Australian Federal Police and the federal Attorney-General’s department.
TheMelbourne-based firm has for the past five years monitored websites,online chat rooms, social networking sites, email lists and bulletinboards, the report said.
It has gathered intelligence onplanned protests and other activities, and many of those on the watchlist have broken no laws, the report said.
It also preparedthreat assessments and intelligence reports for government agenciesthat included material from media reports, speeches, academic journalsand publicly available company data, but no private correspondence wasmonitored.
The company was not named at the request of its management for fear extremists may target the firm.
Thenews comes a month after Victorian police were found to have targetedcommunity and activist groups in a long-running covert operation.