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,<p>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 <i>more</i> privacy than ever before, that it's making police work impossible??
As an insight into how well thought out these laws are, then-PM Malcolm Turnbull said the following when announcing these laws in 2017:<p>"The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only laws that apply in Australia is the law of Australia."<p>A disappointing case of "let's just make a law, then the nerds can figure it out."
The thing that smells bad to me is the combination of<p>1. They want it to be rushed through<p>2. It's unprecedented in the western world<p>3. Australian Governments never do anything unprecedented<p>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.
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.<p>Then what?
Ignoring the obvious and <i>gigantic</i> privacy implications of this...<p>This will kill the Australian software industry because Australian software cannot be trusted worldwide from now on.