Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) could soon start handing out your personal information to corporations.

A draft anti-piracy scheme is proposing to force internet providers to release our private browser history so corporations can punish illegal downloaders with huge fines. What's frightening is that there is no limit on the amount of money corporations can issue as fines -- and this could push ordinary Australians, like you and me, into massive court battles.

Corporations are pitching the scheme as something that is designed to "educate" people. Yet the scheme fails to address the reasons behind downloads and, instead, dangerously allows corporations to invade our private lives.

Protect our private data from corporate internet snoops! Tell Malcolm Turnbull, the Minister for Communications, to reject the abusive anti-piracy proposal.

If this proposal goes through, Australia will have the one of the most invasive anti-piracy laws in the world. ISPs would issue "notices" to people who breach this scheme -- and if you wanted to complain against the notice, you wouldn't be able do so unless you paid a fee. Worse still, complaints against notices would be heard by a panel, comprising people mostly chosen by the industry. And there would be no way to appeal the panel's decisions.

The scheme doesn't even address the reasons behind this behaviour -- research from Australia's leading consumer advocacy group CHOICE found that people download content because of affordability and timeliness. The scheme does not facilitate cheaper and faster content for Australians.

This proposal puts more power in the hands of corporations -- our personal information will be handed out, we'll get harshly punished, and big business will pocket the profits.

Public pressure on this government works -- even though Prime Minister Abbott will never admit it. We saw how it dropped the proposed Medicare co-payment after there was outrage from all sectors of the community. The government is conducting a public consultation on this scheme until March 23, so it's crucial that we speak up now.

At SumOfUs, we've consistently stood up for the right to a free and fair internet. Recently in the US, SumOfUs and a coalition of partners won the battle for Net Neutrality -- we got rules put in place that guarantee an open internet to everyone, not just rich corporations. Now we have to make sure that corporate interests can't trample on our internet freedoms here in Australia.

Join us in speaking out against the anti-piracy scheme that puts all the power in corporate hands.

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More information:

Proposed anti-piracy scheme puts consumer rights at risk CHOICE, 25 Feb 2015
Consumer group Choice aims to 'educate' Malcolm Turnbull over new anti-piracy code, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 February 2015