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Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

abc.net.au

251–260 of 415 posts

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#251
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bit harsh, compared to America it's still saner day-to-day with healthcare, gun control, and very liveable cities with public transport. And it isn't like other western countries aren't thinking of doing something similar. While this is a bad law, being smug about it is the wrong reaction.

Which other western and non-English-speaking countries are doing similar things? This democratic-authoritarianism seems to be unique to the Five Eyes nations.

[deleted]

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California. I had to agree to some changes to their ToS the other day (for Bitbucket) in which I agreed to dispute resolution under California law. I suppose that's a pretty good indication of their thinking. It's not like this legislation is unexpected or sudden.

Are the U.S. "gag orders" equivalent to this new Australian law?

No, the new law has no judicial review and has a few other things that wouldn't fly in the US. It's markedly worse (though don't get me wrong, the US definitely has it pretty bad in this area too).

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're going to move you really should get out of the anglosphere because the US is dragging down everyone with it and there's just not enough sentiment amongst the populations to move away from the US, even now. Switzerland probably remains the best country in the world and has strong privacy laws and a culture of neutrality. As a plus you get to be in Europe. Tech salaries are high. The anglosphere nations lack…

While true, Switzerland now shares banking data with the EU and US when required for their respective nationals. So foreign governments can and do exert pressure on them successfully.

While technically true, I've heard that most Swiss banks refuse to give US citizens bank accounts specifically to avoid the liability of the IRS's scheme to exfiltrate foreign bank data.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#254
post #97
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OpenVPN They'll probably want a backdoor in that too.

Careful criminals will surely be able to find a set of software that isn't affected. Australia isn't the US, only a small portion of software companies would have a large local presence here.

The problem is that a backdoor might not be so obvious. It can be simply a wrong chosen algorithm key size, and you need to be a cryptographic expert to know that.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#255
post #218
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but then the employee can publish statistics about how many TCNs they've received.

They can't provide specifics only ranges. In Division 6, section 317ZF, Unauthorized Disclosure of Information, section 3) subsection 13) a person forced to do one of these TAN/TCN/TCR things can release a count of how many of these TAN/TCN/TCR things. BUT Note: This subsection authorises the disclosure of aggregate statistical information. That information cannot be broken down (a) by agency; or (b) in any other way…

That is what I was referring to as "statistics" (that's what the subsection is titled).

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#256
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can they quit? Or are they effectively being forced to perform labor for the government? This seems like an insanely impossible to enforce proposition.

That's something we'll have to wait and see on, see how the legal world interprets it. However, if it is interpreted that you quitting is not complying, it's fines and perhaps jail time.

There is only civil liability for noncompliance, in the form of massive fines. However there is 5-year imprisonment for people who disclose information about these notices though (unless it follows the aggregated statistics requirements).

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#257

Somebody over on Reddit [1] went through all the submissions (there was a consultation period) and summarised and tallied them [2]. Fully 99%+ of submissions were against the bill. A sad day for democracy indeed. A church in Tasmania was in favour, because child pornography. 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/a3j466/assistanc... 2. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dowpZ_Xtr1N_DgkHJN8i...

A sad day for democracy, but this fact restores some faith in humanity.

How?

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#258
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is another thing that adds to my deep sense of shame to live in this country (sadly, that list is long and growing). I don't support this legislation, but I have to ask, which country is doing a better job on human rights issues than Australia in your opinion? Surely not China or nearly any country in Asia, Africa, or South America? Surely not the US? Probably not much of Europe?

This is a classical‘whataboutism‘ trying to deflect from the real subject by bringing up another. But keeping in line with that theme: what about detaining immigrants in Nauru, Christmans Island, Manus Island etc. under doubtful circumstances with no open access for press and NGOs?

Wasn't the situation in Nauru that the immigrants aren't considered detained as they are free to return home as soon as they agree to do so?

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously wonder how that would work in practice? "Hey Joey, will you work on the fizzibizzi feature that does xyz?" I can't, I have other stuff to do? "What kind of stuff? This feature is the top priority for the whole team?" I JUST CAN'T TELL YOU OKAY!!!

Also, you can't ask anyone else on the team for help implementing it. These backdoors are going to be the worst code possible. What kind of crap quality code do you think a single dev under threat of jail time and the pressure of not being able to communicate with his co-workers or legal representation is going to pump out?

You can speak to a lawyer about it, though I imagine that delaying might cause issues. There is a mandatory 28-day consultation period for TCNs but I imagine that you'd get very little useful protection from that system.

Also there is no criminal punishment for not obeying a notice. There is massive civil liability though, as well as a criminal punishment for disclosing information about the notice.

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