
Controversial Australian encryption laws could pass parliament soon - tonteldoos
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/security/inprinciple-deal-struck-on-controversial-encryption-bill/news-story/75492c0ee5a389a0ada7955733529af4
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deogeo
We are under unprecedented levels of surveillance, with drones, street cameras
(possibly with automatic face and gait identification), credit card
transactions monitored, phone location logged via cell towers, cars via
license plate scanners, pervasive internet monitoring by numerous actors, etc.
And that's all -before- someone is actively targeted by the police, which can
result in bugs placed in the home, car, and on computers, recording
conversations, recording passwords as they're typed in through compromised
keyboards or usb cables, or using telescopic lens and a camera, or one of
those fancy through-wall-radars. Forensic science has also advanced, allowing
traces of suspicious chemicals to be detected on a person, their DNA
identified anywhere they shed dead skin cells,

Almost the only scrap of privacy left is due to encryption (easily
circumvented by planting bugs), yet they want to strip away even that,
claiming we have so much _more_ privacy than ever before, that it's making
police work impossible??

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ruytlm
As an insight into how well thought out these laws are, then-PM Malcolm
Turnbull said the following when announcing these laws in 2017:

"The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only laws that apply in
Australia is the law of Australia."

A disappointing case of "let's just make a law, then the nerds can figure it
out."

~~~
gwillz
It honestly sounds like satire.

He's not entirely dumb and I've always got the impression that he's not a fan
of his own party.

I suspect he knows exactly what he was saying and how stupid it was. But
behind him everyone was aggressively nodding their heads.

~~~
brokenmachine
He's a very intelligent man who as a barrister understands the power of
language.

When a very intelligent man who understands the power of language says
something so obviously false, it makes me almost certain there is something
larger at play here.

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BLKNSLVR
The thing that smells bad to me is the combination of

1\. They want it to be rushed through

2\. It's unprecedented in the western world

3\. Australian Governments never do anything unprecedented

Something else is at work, be it straight-up politics, an actual valid
suspected terrorist threat, pressure from the US / 5-eyes. Whatever it is,
there's no way that unprecedented legislation should be rushed through. EVER.

~~~
gumby
The same recipe is used in trade agreements and by 5-eyes:

1 - get someone else to write it into local law (if they're small like AUS) or
a trade agreement

2 - then get the folks "back home" to pass the same laws because "our
international partners demanded it"

You can see that blatantly in TPP: as soon as the US dropped out the other
participants ripped out some of (sadly not all of) the worst crap the US was
trying to cram into it and passed a much better (IMHO) agreement.

Clearly in this case the US and/or UK are leaning on AUS to do this. There's
no significant domestic call for it.

~~~
BLKNSLVR
Yes, that's also odd. Australia has been relatively un-touched by terrorism.
We've had some lone crazies, but they're just individual mental cases as
opposed to a semi-organised cell.

There was a group of three people recently arrested for planning some kind of
shooting, but the point is they were discovered and arrested. With the current
set of laws.

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upofadown
So some Australian law enforcement entity tells Apple to push an update to a
suspects phone that borks the encryption. Apple pretty much has to say no,
otherwise they would get in trouble with the US government, which they are
currently at odds with for the same refusal.

Then what?

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brokenmachine
Ignoring the obvious and _gigantic_ privacy implications of this...

This will kill the Australian software industry because Australian software
cannot be trusted worldwide from now on.

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shirro
I suspect Australian politicians are doing what is demanded as a price for
retaining the countries current intelligence, military and trade status.

