The #aabill is incredibly short-sighted & luddite. Even if the AU Gov. can coerce tech companies to backdoor encrypted messaging platforms, nothing's going to stop people from resorting to using free & opensource #crypto software like @GnuPG! #auspol bit.ly/2QbxUor 1/
Popular #crypto software is trusted because it's been written & vetted by members of a decentralized #opensource community which you can't coerce. If you want to make it illegal to possess @GnuPG in Australia because you can't backdoor it, then you'll kill the IT industry. 2/
It's disingenuous for @LiberalAus to argue that #crypto only protects terrorists & pedophiles. Crypto protects EVERYBODY. The complex mathematical equations that make #crypto what is it can't discriminate who the user is. Either you have a valid key to solve these equations 4/
and be able to decrypt a message or you don't. To introduce systemic weaknesses or backdoors into an encryption system is to weaken it for EVERYBODY. A lock that works with skeleton keys only serves to make picking it easier not more secure. 5/
In age of #Snowden, #MyHealthRecord & @VictoriaPolice recruiting a defence lawyer as an informant, how can we really trust any Australian gov. to act ethically and respect our privacy? This is a slippery slope to a Orwellian police state. Support @efa_oz and write to your MP!
Furthermore, what tech company would want to risk setting up shop in a country that could legislatively force them to sabotage the security of their systems and jeopardise the safety of all their other customers/users in the rest of the world by installing backdoors? 7/
If we let this legislation pass, what message does this law send to authoritarian countries that we used to lecture on human rights and free speech? This is a law that could far too easily be abused to silence whistleblowers and to chill dissent. 8/
The AU Gov also has a very poor record when it comes to #InfoSec. Remember #CensusFail & @BOM_au being hacked in 2016? And if our allies at the NSA couldn't even keep their hacking toolkit secure, what hope do we have securing our backdoors? #aabil #auspol bit.ly/2E0WMIo
Dear @Deborah_ONeill @jennymcallister @KKeneally & @MRowlandMP. Why is @AustralianLabor so willing to side with the LNP in signing away our civil liberties & throwing our tech industry under a bus in a misguided attempt to appear tough on crime/national security? #aabill #auspol
.@billshortenmp, do you not realise that the next generation of tech-savy voters won't forgive @AustralianLabor when they discover that tmw's online jobs simply aren't here because global companies & startups were too security conscious to invest in AU if #aabill passes? #auspol
