When is ‘not a backdoor’ just a backdoor? Australia’s struggle with encryption
The Australian government wants the ability to read messages kept secret by encryption in the name of aiding criminal investigations. But just how it proposes to do this is unclear. As Australian Attorney-General George Brandis recently told Fairfax: At one point or more of that process, access to the encrypted communication is essential for intelligence […]
Open Rights Group: The Manchester attack
Open Rights Group wishes to express its sympathy for the victims of the vile and brutal attack in Manchester. We condemn these violent attacks, which seem even more abhorrent when deliberately targeted at children and young people. We hope that law enforcement and intelligence agencies will help to bring those involved in these attacks to […]
Data retention has always been about a lot more than ‘national security’
Attorney-General George Brandis told us in November 2014 the data retention regime “applies only to the most serious crime, to terrorism, to international and transnational organised crime, to paedophilia, where the use of metadata has been particularly useful as an investigative tool, … only to crime and only to the highest levels of crime”. The […]
Data retention: universal warrant requirement is only effective protection
Last week’s revelation by the Australian Federal Police that they illegally accessed the retained telecommunications data (‘metadata’) of a journalist without first obtaining a warrant demonstrates the complete lack of effective protection provided by the current legislation. AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin asserted that ‘the police officers investigating the leak did not realise they were required […]
Government says NO to expanding data retention to civil cases
Just before Easter, the government announced that it will not be expanding access to telecommunications data (‘metadata’) to civil litigants. This is an important victory. Had the government allowed even a limited expansion of access, it would almost certainly have been just the first of a number of such expansions. It’s also heartening to see that, […]