Australia Passes World's First Anti Encryption Law

AlphaAtlas

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New Atlas reports that the Australian government recently passed the world's first anti-encryption bill. The Assistance and Access Bill 2018 can allegedly "compel a private company to create new interception capabilities so no communications data is completely inaccessible to the government." While the lawmakers claim they aren't requiring the creation of software "backdoors," security experts point out that there may be no other way to comply with the law, as end to end encryption is "fundamentally unassailable." Apple pointed out this ambiguity in October, and now several Australian companies seem to be very unhappy with the bill.

Ted Hardie, chair of the Internet Architecture Board, suggested the legislation may even break laws in other countries if the Australian government tries to force companies to hand over sensitive data. The massive GDPR law rolled out across Europe earlier this year is a prime example raised by Hardie. "We are concerned that the proposed legislation may cause these service providers to violate contracts or laws in other jurisdictions, depending upon the exact nature of the requests made," Hardie writes. "For example, companies with European presence are required to handle sensitive data according to the GDPR, and by complying with an Australian order for data that might be located in Europe, that provider could be required to violate the GDPR to satisfy Australian law."
 
Shame...shame...shame. These legislators should be made to do the walk of shame (but umm...don't think I want to actually watch them).
 
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Just a trial run for a full roll out in other countries. Most of these backdoors already exist anyway, I’m assuming they just want a way to legally use them in a court. Next up they’ll probably pass a law to have access to everyone’s internet connected cameras to legally view them whenever they want.

I suppose if you want privacy you’ll have to use hardware you’ve manufactured yourself with software you’ve coded yourself.
 
That is horrific. Australia going the way of Communist China, Russia and other authoritarian regimes.

The security argument should never be used to support removal or reduction of rights. The Patriot Act in our own country is one of the worst of all time, and it doesn't even go this far.
 
This is a very bad law, but what you get when you keep voting for lefties/socialists/communists.

This is the conservative ("right wing") government.

Not to mention, that those who have pursued laws like these in the U.S. have also always been conservatives. Patriot Act was driven by the Bush administration.

Civil liberties are under constant attack from the right under the name of fighting terrorism or law and order.
 
[citation needed]

I think that would be difficult to quantify. There is no universal political conservative/liberal score. Heck, even these words mean different things in different countries. In Europe (and most other places outside the U.S.) the word "liberal" is used to refer to a type of conservative world view.
 
It's all relative. Aussie politicians have moved so far left that even the "conservatives" are left of center. Not one of they would be considered right wing in the US.

So, now you are arguing that conservatives in Australia are really just American "leftists" and no true "conservative" (by whatever definition YOU decide on) would push this type of legislation? I think you boxed yourself into a corner and now you are playing semantics.
 
I think that would be difficult to quantify. There is no universal political conservative/liberal score. Heck, even these words mean different things in different countries. In Europe (and most other places outside the U.S.) the word "liberal" is used to refer to a type of conservative world view.

Exactly, it's a bullshit claim with no way to back it up. Just a piss poor attempt to deflect.
 
Exactly, it's a bullshit claim with no way to back it up. Just a piss poor attempt to deflect.

It's far easier to deflect than admit that you let your own bias cloud your judgement on a foreign issue that you clearly did zero research on.
 
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Once again, Australia proves it's the biggest joke on the internet.

I don't get why Australia is so authoritarian with national defense. Who the hell wants to invade that country? Do terrorists even know about that country?
 
Once again, Australia proves it's the biggest joke on the internet.

I don't get why Australia is so authoritarian with national defense. Who the hell wants to invade that country? Do terrorists even know about that country?

I mean, Japan wanted it at one point. Maybe they will want it again? ;)
 
This is the kind of thing that deserves a protest. The government has fundamentally removed any semblance of personal privacy that one may have with an entity. Not only does it increase State powers over one's information, but it will no doubt make it even easier for malicious actors to obtain your personal information.

The natural result will either be weaker algorithms that can be broken, backdoors, and/or weak private key management methods that could compromise the inherent security of encryption and hashing algorithms.

GG.
 
I am 100 % pro more logging.
BUT !
I mean logging of the people we vote for, every word they speak every hand they shake - every penny they make should be public domain.
But spying on your own citizens for what ever reason, them are fighting deeds if you ask me.
 
From the article: "Even more controversial is the fact that this security vulnerability must be deployed in secret, without public knowledge."

Trust us, we are the good guys. You are free...To follow all the rules. /sarc
 
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This is really bad. It wasn't long ago that any mention of privacy as a right was removed from the commonwealth charter, and now we are seeing more and more countries take advantage of that sentiment.
 
Here I thought it would happen in China, Russia, or some Islamic country first. Great job, Australia, in bringing more oppression to the world.
 
Keep twisting yourself in a knot to deflect the fact this is RIGHT WING Governments attack on PRIVACY.

Other people's privacy. Why would actual liberals vote for surveillance lol

Authority needs surveillance. If you're against it, you're a pedo. Even worse [please use imagination, citizen. what have we told you to hate the most right now?]!

I guess future generations will just be different. There will be no such thing as privacy and everyone will just have to deal with it. Do today's kids care? I think not. Not even the adults do. No one does it seems.

We already have cameras almost everywhere
 
This is the conservative ("right wing") government.

Not to mention, that those who have pursued laws like these in the U.S. have also always been conservatives. Patriot Act was driven by the Bush administration.

Civil liberties are under constant attack from the right under the name of fighting terrorism or law and order.

When will people realise that, there's no difference between Conservatism and liberalism, they all Serve the same Master( Uni Party) worldwide.
 
This is really bad. It wasn't long ago that any mention of privacy as a right was removed from the commonwealth charter, and now we are seeing more and more countries take advantage of that sentiment.


this was *ALWAYS* the case.

it may not have been coded in the constitution(s) of the Realms, but the Crown has, and always will "own" you.

whether that "ownership" is of value in most cases is another discussion entirely.

most of us are boring, useless, and/or uninteresting, and thus our data is of little value--i.e., all we do is "eat and shit", and do little else that warrants the monitoring.

the constitutions were designed to monitor all citizens in the "miracle" situation of producing another isaac newton (on *any* realm).
  • in such a case, monitoring becomes crucial since there are many spiteful anti-faith individuals who would like to see nothing more than such a talent go away.

in all other cases however, even though the Crown has access to your information, they have not (as far as i am aware) used it without going through the legal channels first (if it's necessary. sometimes they just use it to keep a 'watchful eye').

i <3 u HRH [aka 'nana' ;)]!!!

edit: brief aside... where did Commonwealth citizens ever get the idea that the Realms weren't plantations? just because they're full of "white people" doesn't mean our legal framework has changed significantly in the past few centuries. legal precedents and such have definitely helped the evolution of our law, but in no way did these contributions change the gist of our foundational principle, which is: we get good infrastructure (or used to) that was originally seeded with Crown money", and thus if "Bill Gates" is produced from a public school, s/he *will* be spoken for by the Crown.

that's just how it goes. that's how it always has gone. lord kelvin. alexander graham bell. john herschel. howard (lord) florey [arguably the most underrated contributor to the discovery of penicillin, and an AUSSIE], edit2: don't forget GERMANY REFUGEE (from world war 2) who is a British Citizen, Ralph Benjamin, inventor of the (mechanical, aka 'ball') computer mouse.

edit 2: we are free. just not free without impunity. this is nothing to worry about, even for most criminals. it is only in very select cases where this freedom is an illusion. very, very, select cases.
 
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