Re: [tor-relays] The Assistance and Access Bill 2018

Hi,

I am unfamiliar with the nuances of Australian law however I do wonder the following:

On Tue, 4 Sep 2018 at 14:01, teor <teor@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The law specifically allows payments by the government.

Lets speculate and say there is a relay operator who runs their relay in their spare time, and the Australian Government want to force this person to spend time and rig their relay and turn it "bad", sucking up all sorts of data as it goes through.

The real test would be if they could ask this person to quit their full time job in order to complete this (for any) task. Sure they might get 'compensation' (pay) of some sort, perhaps hardware - but if they feel they are being asked to do too much its unlikely they will be able to appeal - and even if they can appeal it is likely it would be done in secret.

A member of the Australian Government is known for saying "the laws of mathematics are great - Australian laws are better" (referring to back doors in encryption), perhaps under these new laws they can force a person to work more than 24 hours a day lol.

Thanks.

On Tue, 4 Sep 2018 at 14:01, teor <teor@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 4 Sep 2018, at 21:57, Gary <jaffacakemonster53@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 4 Sep 2018, 11:20 Paul Templeton, <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But seriously -
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/consultations/assistance-and-access-bill-2018
And -
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/national-security/five-country-ministerial-2018

The thing that worries me is that this bill will probably go through and it can hoover up relay operators. That is they can force you to add/develop tools to eavesdrop on you.

I remember reading about this a while ago. I don't have the links to the articles on the device I am using however they mentioned three things:

1). The organisation would need the skills and resources to bake in back doors (e.g. knowledgeable people).

Good point.

Although most relay operators can set up packet dumps and debug logging.

2). Free speech - Can you make a programmer code (speak) something they do not want to say.

There is no general right to free speech under Australia law.
As far as I'm aware, there are no precedents that treat code as speech, either.

3). Assuming someone is willing to help - it may take one person years to do as they have been asked, so during that time are they employed by the government? Do they get assistance (e.g. mentoring or hardware) to do the task?

The law specifically allows payments by the government.

T
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