Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

abc.net.au

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 415 posts

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#111

Post by miqkt »

krautjakob wrote: post #92

Ouch. Since I'm using Fastmail ... can anybody recommend a good alternative? I don't mind paying for a good and secure E-Mailprovider. Protonmail looks nice, but it does not seem to offer IMAP (because mails are end2end encrypted).

Posteo (https://posteo.de).

Made the switch earlier this year. Webmail UI might seem clunky to some, but I use IMAP so non-issue for me. Easy to set up encryption and apparently they're powered sustainably too.

One deal breaker I know of is you can't map to your own custom domains. There's something in their FAQ which explains their rationale behind this.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#112

Post by martinbm »

krautjakob wrote: post #92

Ouch. Since I'm using Fastmail ... can anybody recommend a good alternative? I don't mind paying for a good and secure E-Mailprovider. Protonmail looks nice, but it does not seem to offer IMAP (because mails are end2end encrypted).

ProtonMail is indeed great and offers a bridge for use with IMAP-compatible programs. Check out https://protonmail.com/bridge/. I believe they are working on a more integrated solution, but no news of when it'll be out have been announced.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#113

Post by boyter »

robryan wrote: post #104
boyter wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 block us. Apple if you are reading this stop selling us iPhones. Australians need to feel the pain of this otherwise nothing will change. 1 billion dollars wiped from Atlassian already. I’m hoping the markets react more and destroy the industry here. Might want to assume that all Australian developers are now potentially compromised.

Possible it will go nowhere. How can Apple for example provide a backdoor for imessage which isn't a systemic weakness?

Considering that isn’t even defined in the bill that just passed I have little hope it will save it.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#114

Post by bigiain »

pvg wrote: post #60
brokenmachine wrote: post #36

Could an expat Australian dev be compelled to put backdoors in software even while overseas, under threat of being prosecuted when he returns? If so, Australians can't even be employed in foreign software companies.

No. People work in jurisdictions other than their own with potentially conflicting laws all the time. If it worked the way you seem to be suggesting it does, nobody, never mind Australians, would be able to work outside their home municipality at all.

Extraordinary rendition of SV software devs.

I doubt even _that_ would cause an uproar so long as it's timed to coincide with yet another threat to the aspirationally wealthy Australian way of life...

"Well, we need to lock up E2E encrypted messaging app developers in Nauru and Guantanamo Bay, because otherwise mortgage rates will go up and your house and investment property values will fall!"

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#115

Post by brokenmachine »

acutesoftware wrote: post #38

I am an Australian software developer and am currently getting https://www.lifepim.com ready for release which, funnily enough has the main selling point as "Your data is private, secure and free from adverts" - what a joke. The scary part is not knowing how the law is going to be implemented - I am hopeful that smart people work on the implementation of it in terms of practicality. If it is an on request thing "give…

I would not use your software because I don't believe my data on it could possibly be private and secure. Especially after you've just said you could do an "on request thing" for certain users data.

Sadly our government has failed us. We are the laughing stock of the whole world (except maybe China).

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#116

Post by shakna »

krautjakob wrote: post #92

Ouch. Since I'm using Fastmail ... can anybody recommend a good alternative? I don't mind paying for a good and secure E-Mailprovider. Protonmail looks nice, but it does not seem to offer IMAP (because mails are end2end encrypted).

Paid Protonmail has a bridge to IMAP/SMTP. [0]

[0] https://protonmail.com/bridge/

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#117

Post by brokenmachine »

StavrosK wrote: post #93
boyter wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way it’s written that could be 5 years in gaol because you let people know about it.

Not relevant, but I love the old-school spelling of "gaol". Is it still used anywhere or are you being whimsical?

That's the official spelling in Australia, and I think the UK.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#118

Post by shakna »

StavrosK wrote: post #93
boyter wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way it’s written that could be 5 years in gaol because you let people know about it.

Not relevant, but I love the old-school spelling of "gaol". Is it still used anywhere or are you being whimsical?

Yes, Australia uses it still. e.g. Ballarat Gaol, Old Melbourne Gaol.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#119

Post by bigiain »

neotek wrote: post #56
lwansbrough wrote: post #3

Literally zero percent chance I touch any software made in Australia now.

This immensely stupid law applies to any business that operates in Australia, which includes Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Facebook, Github, and every other major tech company on the planet. If they want to continue doing business in Australia (and they very much do) then they'll be forced to comply, which means everybody in the world is negatively affected by this insanity.

Cutting loose ~25million potential customers might actually be a financially rational for some companies. It's not like we here in Australia are really a very big market on the global stage...

Won't surprise me at all to find some businesses (like perhaps Whisper Systems) who's "doing business in Australia" doesn't actually earn them a single cent, yet will open them up to enormous reputational damage if they continue operating in Australia after this, might just choose to take thier app/service out of the .au app stores...

(BRB, backing up my iDevices and switching auto-update off...)

Post reply on HN