WA Parliamentary Question reveals North Metropolitan TAFE monitors WiFi MAC addresses for location analytics, raising privacy concerns as users are unaware and data is retained for 13 months. Other agencies under the Minister for Education and Training do not engage in this practice.

AnsweredQoN 2675Legislative Assembly
Asked
13 March 2018
Portfolio
Education and Training

QuestionView source ↗

Does any department, agency and Government Trading Enterprise under the Minister's control maintain any wireless network that monitors a third-party's WiFi MAC (Media Access Control) or bluetooth address and if so: (a) Where is the wireless network located and who is being monitored; (b) What company supplies the software and/or hardware to monitor the addresses, what was the upfront and ongoing annual cost; (c) Why was the decision made to monitor the addresses; (d) What information is harvested as part of this monitoring, how is it stored and how long is it retained; and (e) Are the third-party's aware of the monitoring and do they have any way to opt-out?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
8 May 2018
Responded by
Minister representing the Minister for Education and Training
Response time
9 days
Department of Education
No
(a) – (e)     Not applicable.
Department of Training and Workforce Development
No
(a) – (e)     Not applicable.
North Metropolitan TAFE
a) 35 Kendrew Cres, Joondalup
63 McLarty Ave, Joondalup
31 Hamony Ave, Clarkson
133 Harold St, Mt Lawley
196 Oxford St, Leederville
140 Royal St, East Perth
Aberdeen Street, Northbridge
Staff, students and public are monitored
b) Cisco Meraki managed by Telstra.
Upfront: $0. Ongoing: $5 269.70/month
The cost is for full WiFi licencing and management. Individual component costs cannot be established.
c) Location based analytics are included as a standard service for Cloud managed Cisco Meraki WiFi. It provides opportunity to monitor demand for WiFi and improve network performance.
d) Data:        MAC address, Proximity to network, time within proxy and connected session time
Storage:     One-way hash to anonymise data within third party secure data centre
Retention:  13 months
d) Third parties are not aware of the monitoring however, there are ways to opt-out.
South Metropolitan TAFE
North Regional TAFE
Central Regional TAFE
South Regional TAFE
No
(a) – (e)     Not applicable.
Building Construction Industry Training Fund
No
(a) – (e)     Not applicable.

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