Revelations over the weekend have outraged internet users and electronic rights advocates around the country, following reports that Telstra has been giving the FBI information on Australians’ communications for over a decade.

Telstra and its Hong Kong partner PCCW provided the FBI and US Department of Justice with access to its undersea cables to allow it to spy on data entering and leaving the United States, documents have revealed.

Telstra may have had its hand forced into the deal, with reports the US would not allow network traffic from Australian or Asian sources into the country without forcing telcos to hand over streams of private information.

The US Government reportedly requires Telstra to; preserve and provide customer billing and subscriber information on US customers for two years, to ignore foreign privacy laws that might lead to mandatory destruction of stored data, to allow the US to conduct routine inspections of its offices and infrastructure and to protect the agreement from Freedom of Information requests and requests for information from other countries without permission from the Department of Justice.

Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam has called on Telstra to immediately disclose details of the secret deal, saying, "This is an extraordinary breach of trust, invasion of privacy, and erosion of Australia’s sovereignty." 

Electronic rights group Public Intelligence has posted a list of all security agreements they have uncovered between the United States and telecommunications groups worldwide. It is available online.