There’s going to be a lot of debate over this one, as the Australian Government has just released a draft of their Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018 (1.13MB PDF)
The Assistance and Access Bill is intended to secure critical assistance from the communications industry, and enable law enforcement to investigate serious crimes. However it has already raised a fair amount of criticism across the media, based on the proposed changes – as will have a major impact on Australian citizen’s privacy.
The draft of The Assistance and Access Bill 2018 calls for anyone using or selling communications services in Australia to be subject to police orders for access to private data.
This includes all vendors of computers, phones, apps, social media and cloud services, and anyone within national borders using them.
These data-tapping orders will be enforced with fines of up to AU$10m (US$7.3m) for companies or $50,000 ($36,368) for individuals.
While there’s no explicit encryption backdoor requirements in the 110 page draft bill, there’s commentary already that it’s more to do with the keys to the front door instead!
What’s your view? Read the full draft using the link below, and feel free to comment.
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/consultations/assistance-and-access-bill-2018
