> Under the proposals, people who are not even suspected of a crime would face a fine of up to $50,000 and up to five years’ imprisonment for declining to provide a password to their smartphone, computer or other electronic devices.
> Furthermore, anyone (an IT professional, for example) who refuses to help the authorities crack a computer system when ordered will face up to five years in prison. If the crime being investigated is terrorism-related then the penalty for non-compliance increases to 10 years in prison and/or a $126,000 fine.
> Tech companies who refuse to assist authorities to crack encryption when asked to do so, will face up to $10 million in fines. What’s more, if any employee of the company tells anyone else they have been told to do this, they will face up to five years in gaol.
Data retention is what GCHQ has been doing for years regardless of laws.
Dutton is an ultra conservative border protector type, don’t expect all his proposals to pass.
How many DEFCons and CCC conferences do you have to go to before you hear a rubber hose cryptography joke?
Dan Greer’s realpolitik talk in 2015 mentions that cyber security is all aggression little defence. If it were a soccer game it would be 421-420 at the 20minute mark. The best of the best in the US struggle with this stuff behind closed doors, seeing Australia take the flak in public is fine, but don’t pretend US and UK are innocent. These proposals are not the leading edge of privacy invasion.
It’s inaccurate to call it “Peter Dutton’s give me your password law” – it’s been around since 2001 (although the maximum penalty was increased from 2 to 10 years in 2018), and there are equivalent laws in most developed countries. As far as I am aware, only in the US have people actually spent years in prison solely for refusing to disclose a password: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/02/man-who-refused-...
https://www.zdnet.com/article/whats-actually-in-australias-e...
Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-32061421
Peter Dutton's proposed "give me your password" law:
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/peter-dutton-p...
> Under the proposals, people who are not even suspected of a crime would face a fine of up to $50,000 and up to five years’ imprisonment for declining to provide a password to their smartphone, computer or other electronic devices.
> Furthermore, anyone (an IT professional, for example) who refuses to help the authorities crack a computer system when ordered will face up to five years in prison. If the crime being investigated is terrorism-related then the penalty for non-compliance increases to 10 years in prison and/or a $126,000 fine.
> Tech companies who refuse to assist authorities to crack encryption when asked to do so, will face up to $10 million in fines. What’s more, if any employee of the company tells anyone else they have been told to do this, they will face up to five years in gaol.