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When's A Backdoor Not A Backdoor? When The Oz Government Says It Isn't

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-use-the-front-door dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Australia's promised “not-a-backdoor” crypto-busting bill is out and the government has kept its word - it doesn't want a backdoor, just the keys to your front one.

The draft of The Assistance and Access Bill 2018 calls for anyone using or selling communications services in Australia will be subject to police orders for access to private data.

That includes all vendors of computers, phones, apps, social media and cloud services in the Lucky Country, 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

The draft legislation also wants five years in prison for anyone who reveals a data-slurping investigation is going on. And while there's no explicit encryption backdoor requirements in the 110 page draft bill, our first look suggests there doesn't need to be.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:40PM (#721788)

    I dont understand why the burden is placed on manufacturers.
    just ask the person owning the data to decrypt it(*).
    related, were technical limitations in old-skool safe construction also governed by the law?

    probably this is bankrolled by some for-profit-no-service OS manufacturer.
    testing the idea, to control computer hardware BY LAW, in some backwater country, first.
    a beta run, so to speak.
    once all the hurdles have been documented and cleared, i bet it will get rolled-out globally.

    and then in some 10 years, people start asking what this code-routin or this clipperchip does anymore,
    since now we're all living in happy, fairy land, drinking unicorn milk and lying in the shade of unicorn-fart rainbows ...

    (*) if there is ever scientific proof that getting a blow job makes you smarter, then
    surely the clubberment will press us all into service... for national security.