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Microsoft says encryption laws make companies wary of storing data in Australia

abc.net.au

1–10 of 294 posts

Re: Microsoft says encryption laws make companies wary of storing data in Australia

#4
That's one of the biggest things that lawmakers here couldn't seem to understand - tech companies have high mobility across borders. Even if a law has no teeth, why would Microsoft store data in Australia when the next country over can still serve data for the region? It just creates too much risk, from a privacy and PR standpoint. Startups will be more adverse to founding in Australia as well. It just creates a black mark on their record from the start. These data laws were very poorly planned by the Australian Government.

Re: Microsoft says encryption laws make companies wary of storing data in Australia

#5

Ironically OpenSSL started in AU because the crypto (export) laws of the US were too stringent: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSLeay Now it's the opposite?

Same goes for the Bouncy Castle Java APIs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouncy_Castle_(cryptography)

Re: Microsoft says encryption laws make companies wary of storing data in Australia

#7
post #4

That's one of the biggest things that lawmakers here couldn't seem to understand - tech companies have high mobility across borders. Even if a law has no teeth, why would Microsoft store data in Australia when the next country over can still serve data for the region? It just creates too much risk, from a privacy and PR standpoint. Startups will be more adverse to founding in Australia as well. It just creates a blac…

Australia's lawmakers just need to amend the law so that it doesn't matter where the data is stored, as long as the company operates within their nation's borders.

I'd like to see how the Australian government handles things when MS cancels all their Windows and Office licenses.

Re: Microsoft says encryption laws make companies wary of storing data in Australia

#8
post #3

From what I understand, Australia (and other nations) don't give their citizens explicit rights, such as to personal and property privacy.

People have a legal right to both personal and private property under Australian law. I’m not sure where you got that idea.

Re: Microsoft says encryption laws make companies wary of storing data in Australia

#10

I was about ready to move all my email over to Fastmail before this happened. But not now.

There was a thread I made about ProtonMail v FastMail and this one point came up at the top. However ProtonMail’s inability to support standard clients without an awkward bridge app seems to take edge off it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19372882

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