Plan to bug Qld taxis causes outrage

Civil libertarians say there's no security justification for a plan to record all conversations that take place in Queensland taxis.

The proposal is outlined in a discussion paper to be considered by the state government about the use of taxi security cameras, which can currently capture images but not audio.

Under the proposal, surveillance of passengers would be expanded to record conversations. Once downloaded by a cab company, audio recordings could be held for up to 35 days.

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president, Michael Cope, told AAP that audio recordings were not allowed when the cameras were introduced in 2006 for valid privacy reasons.

He said there was no evidence then, and he's not aware of any since, that audio recordings would increase the safety of taxi drivers - the reason cameras were installed in the first place.

"When you want to invade personal privacy, there needs to be an appropriate justification," he said.

"We accepted that the cameras were justifiable - subject to appropriate protections - because there was evidence that putting them in taxis increased the safety of drivers.

"I'm not aware of any evidence that recording people's conversations will improve the safety of drivers."

He said the motivation appeared to be centred on issues other than driver safety, such as resolving fare evasions.

And he warned the plan could prompt fishing exercises by police, as seen with Queensland's Go Card, and increase the risk of material being misused.

"We've already seen police accessing the Go Card database to try and track down witnesses to things," Cope said.

"And if audio recordings are going to be stored for any length of time it increases the potential for it to be used for nefarious purposes and end up on YouTube for example."

Cope said he only found out about the proposal on the final day of submissions for the paper and he'd sought an extension so he could formally object.

Meanwhile, the opposition Liberal National Party accused the government of giving little thought to privacy concerns.

"We need to know how these recordings are going to be used. Who's going to have access to them," transport spokesman, Scott Emerson, told the ABC.

"Anyone who has taken a cab knows that quite often we have conversations in taxis that we wouldn't want anyone else to hear. But there's no confidence so far from the state government that they've even thought about this."

Comment was being sought from Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk.

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