Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended the gathering of so-called metadata, saying he has seen no evidence that Australian spy agencies have done anything illegal.
According to the latest secret documents leaked by fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden and published by the Guardian Australia, the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) discussed the option of sharing "medical, legal or religious information" with its foreign intelligence partners.
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Mr Abbott says he's confident Australian intelligence agencies are acting in accordance with the law and there are adequate safeguards in place.
"If there's any evidence that we have acted inappropriately, that we have done something illegally, produce the evidence and the matter will be dealt with," the prime minister told reporters in Canberra.
"But there's nothing that's in the public arena, there's nothing that I am privately aware of, to suggest that any Australian law has been broken."
The Guardian report says DSD indicated to counterparts from the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand at a 2008 intelligence conference that it could share material without some of the privacy restraints imposed by other countries.
"DSD can share bulk, unselected, unminimised metadata as long as there is no intent to target an Australian national," the leaked notes of the gathering released on Monday read.
Metadata refers to the raw information people generate when they use technology like phones and computers.
But Mr Abbott says metadata is "essentially the billing data".
"There's a big difference between billing data and the actual content of calls," he said.
"You can only get access to the content of communications by warrant, under our system."
DSD, now known as the Australian Signals Directorate, collects and analyses foreign signals intelligence.
