More than 820,000 Australians had their telecoms account details revealed to law-enforcement, emergency services, and national security agencies in the year to June 30, the Australian Communications and Media Authority has revealed.

The details were revealed under the Telecommunications Act. Some 584,029 customer records were handed over for the alleged purpose of enforcing criminal law, ACMA says in its annual report, tabled in Parliament this week.

Only in 171,926 cases was the information provided with the person’s knowledge or consent – meaning the other 648,000-odd cases were carried out in secrecy.

Some 7206 were for “enforcement of a law imposing a pecuniary penalty or protection of public revenue; 4195 were for locating missing persons; 1268 were to “assist ACMA”; 484 involved witnesses under summons; and 67 were for enforcing a foreign country’s criminal law.