Residents are outraged at one council’s cyber-snooping of their mobile phone and email data.

Privacy advocates and everyday citizens are up in arms over the revelation that the Wyndham Council probed around private data almost 50 times in the last three years. Reportedly they were investigating criminal allegations in cases involving unauthorised advertising, unregistered pets and illegal littering.

University of New South Wales cyber law and policy centre director David Vaile said there was no reason for councils to have such invasive powers, especially when they are employed “not to hunt down terrorists but to catch litterbugs and owners of unregistered pets.”

Australian law enforcements' access to alarming levels of personal information has only recently been revealed. The Wyndham Council is reportedly the only one in the state that has requested access to such information, but Mr Vaile has still called it a “warning sign” of a slippery slope away from the values of an open and democratic society.