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

abc.net.au

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

#71

Post by TallGuyShort »

mastazi wrote: post #30

I have migrated to Australia many years ago and I have recently become eligible to become a citizen. However I’ve heard stories of tech companies refusing to hire Australians because of the AA Bill, so I’m holding it off for now. The problem seems to be the provision that a tech worker can be coerced by the Australian Government into creating a backdoor, and they are not authorised to disclose it to their employer. I…

How confident are my fellow American citizens that the American government doesn't effectively have the same power? I mean if someone showed up at your house in a black Suburban with an official-looking letter that seemed like a court order that you provide them with a backdoor and threatening you with all manner of charges if you go public. How confident are you you could walk away cleanly from that any other way?

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

#72

Post by chii »

tacticus wrote: post #29
AndrewGaspar wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the right to vote Yeah, but they mess even that up by making it obligatory. :)

You have to go. you don't have to pick. Makes it difficult for states to disenfranchise people through budget cuts.

By the time and effort spent going to vote, I bet nobody will just cast a null vote.

Compulsory voting is more democratic. The USA should make voting compulsory!

Ditto with the brexit referendum! If only they made it compulsory, brexit would have probably not passed (presumably many people just didn't expect brexit to win, and so didn't bother going to vote).

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

#73

Post by mrspeaker »

tomlu wrote: post #60
mastazi wrote: post #30

I have migrated to Australia many years ago and I have recently become eligible to become a citizen. However I’ve heard stories of tech companies refusing to hire Australians because of the AA Bill, so I’m holding it off for now. The problem seems to be the provision that a tech worker can be coerced by the Australian Government into creating a backdoor, and they are not authorised to disclose it to their employer. I…

I have Australian citizenship, but fortunately I live abroad so I would just refuse. Good luck with that extradition numbnuts :)

Hmmm... that sounds exactly what someone coerced to introduce a backdoor would say!

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

#74

Post by Macross8299 »

otachack wrote: post #59
mastazi wrote: post #30

I have migrated to Australia many years ago and I have recently become eligible to become a citizen. However I’ve heard stories of tech companies refusing to hire Australians because of the AA Bill, so I’m holding it off for now. The problem seems to be the provision that a tech worker can be coerced by the Australian Government into creating a backdoor, and they are not authorised to disclose it to their employer. I…

There's so much ambiguity in this, though. Can't the complying Australian employee simply nudge his/her coworker and say "hey, patch this later" and then it's just a game of back and forth with the Australian government not having their way in the end?

I mean, you're pretty much advocating for the rough equivalent of a warrant canary, which have already been explicitly outlawed in Australia. [0]

[0]: https://boingboing.net/2015/03/26/australia-outlaws-warrant-...

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

#76

Post by mastazi »

jacques_chester wrote: post #54
mastazi wrote: post #30

I have migrated to Australia many years ago and I have recently become eligible to become a citizen. However I’ve heard stories of tech companies refusing to hire Australians because of the AA Bill, so I’m holding it off for now. The problem seems to be the provision that a tech worker can be coerced by the Australian Government into creating a backdoor, and they are not authorised to disclose it to their employer. I…

Look. It's a stupid bill. So garishly stupid that it can blind a boulder. So vapidly moronic that bits of ooze collected by clams are more intelligent. It's so bad that astronauts on the ISS passing over Canberra need to shield their heads with lead so the radioactive idiocy doesn't fry them. But don't kid yourself: Australian citizenship is profoundly valuable. I would not pass it up lightly. I was born to it and I…

> Australian citizenship is profoundly valuable.

Getting where I am now (Australian permanent resident) has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

It included working casual night-shift jobs while studying to get a uni degree during the day (having an Australian degree improves your score towards a skilled visa).

For a long period I have been separated from my wife and daughter due to visa complications, it was heartbreaking.

In addition I had to give up my role as a start-up co-founder (because in order to maximise your skilled visa score, it's better if you are an employee at an Australian-based company - the start-up I was involved with was legally based overseas).

I haven't even visited my home country (Italy) since 2013, I am still in touch with family and some friends but the reality is that the connection to Italy is slowly fading away and I am long past that phase where you start to call your adoptive country "home".

Becoming an Australian citizen has been the main goal of my life in the past 8 years so I'm not going to pass on it lightly. At the moment, however, I'm taking my time to think about it.

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

#77

Post by tracker1 »

Sabinus wrote: post #36
tracker1 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.S. actually goes a step further... the only rights the constitution actually spells out are the rights of government. Most encroachments have been under the guise of "interstate commerce" or "taxation" in general... > The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. As to the bill of rights, so long…

Maybe if the police in America wasn't armed to the teeth and scared of being blown away by armed populace they wouldn't act like they do. For a country who keeps guns to hold governments accountable, your government is just a unaccountable as everyone else; if not more so.

The police weren't armed like today back in the 1950's, and guess what, individuals had MORE guns as a general population. The militarization of the police, less training, less acting as part of the communities they serve, etc. It's about conflict of personality and very little to do with real danger.

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

#78

Post by aesthethiccs »

chii wrote: post #72
tacticus wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to go. you don't have to pick. Makes it difficult for states to disenfranchise people through budget cuts.

By the time and effort spent going to vote, I bet nobody will just cast a null vote. Compulsory voting is more democratic. The USA should make voting compulsory! Ditto with the brexit referendum! If only they made it compulsory, brexit would have probably not passed (presumably many people just didn't expect brexit to win, and so didn't bother going to vote).

> I bet nobody will just cast a null vote.

Have you heard of the term donkey voting? null votes in Australia are about 5% of total votes (federally) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-04/informal-votes-to-hav...

Also it's only sorta compulsory in a sense, you can just never register and never have to vote. but if you do register you will get fined if you don't vote. the amount of unregistered voters is about 4% of the population. so at it's worst it's atleast more representative then some other democracies.

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

#79

Post by flukus »

KorematsuFred wrote: post #38
mastazi wrote: post #30

I have migrated to Australia many years ago and I have recently become eligible to become a citizen. However I’ve heard stories of tech companies refusing to hire Australians because of the AA Bill, so I’m holding it off for now. The problem seems to be the provision that a tech worker can be coerced by the Australian Government into creating a backdoor, and they are not authorised to disclose it to their employer. I…

Is this true ? There is no way I am hiring an Australian citizen then.

Do you avoid hiring people from China, Iran, Russia and anyone else from an authoritarian regime?

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

#80

Post by mirimir »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #46
tracker1 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.S. actually goes a step further... the only rights the constitution actually spells out are the rights of government. Most encroachments have been under the guise of "interstate commerce" or "taxation" in general... > The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. As to the bill of rights, so long…

Yeah, but the problem is that the Constitution says that you can't infringe on the right to bear arms, and telling me that I can't have a mutated anthrax grenade is, technically, infringing on my right to bear arms. The only reason we're still alive is that lawyers don't parse words in the way that engineers do.

Hey, years ago I took a firearms safety class. The instructor joked that the Second Amendment ought to include tactical nukes ;)
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