Ignore the attention-grabbing headline for a second.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory.

The Australian House of Representatives has just—as of 7th December 2018—passed new legislation, entitled the Assistance and Access Bill 2018.

This legislation, if enacted, will not just remove our rights to digital privacy in part, but in totality; none of your digital information will be again completely safe and hidden from prying eyes.

What does these proposed laws entail?

The legislation in the Assistance and Access Bill 2018 would allow law enforcement authorities to force tech companies to hand over user information… even if it’s protected by end-to-end encryption.

Tech companies such as Facebook, Google & Apple and many others will be compelled to hand over users’ private data to intelligence agencies. Such private data includes that which even the aforementioned companies themselves do not now yet have access to— due to encryption.

What is end-to-end encryption?

An example of end-to-end encryption is the technology built into WhatsApp. Only the parties in each chat are able to read the chat content — anyone else trying to hack into your chat data, if successful, will only be presented with gobbledygook. In order to read any of the text in human language the hacker will have to somehow crack the “encryption key” in order to decrypt and decipher the text into anything remotely readable.

Using WhatsApp as an example, only you and your chat partners hold the encryption keys and therefore only you and your chat partners can read the chat contents.

End-to-end encryption effectively prevents other parties accessing your information.

Because modern encryption technology is arguably impossible to crack, it adds an important layer of privacy to our digital content, such as communications on WhatsApp.

Side note: Part of the reason Facebook advertising can so accurately target your interests is that [Facebook] Messenger is not end-to-end encrypted! Facebook’s servers, amongst other things, read all your Messenger conversations. Facebook actually openly admits this. Doing so allows their algorithms to categorise and automatically select what advertisements you will likely be drawn to.

They can do this because while WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, Messenger is not.

What are the implications of the legislation?

What this legislation obligates is that all tech companies install what is called a “backdoor” into their apps and relevant software.

A ‘backdoor’ in simple terms is an added piece of code that gives companies the capability to access, through a secret passageway, all your encrypted private information. The result is that essentially none of your data will be completely private anymore.

Outwardly this legislation is solely for national security interests; in order that the Australian government be able to intercept suspected online terrorist activity and prevent terror attacks.

Law enforcement officials in Australia, as well as the U.S. and other nations have repeatedly labeled the use of end-to-end encryption as a national security issue because it inhibits the investigation of suspected terrorists’ communications.

— Bradley Barth, Senior Reporter, SC (Cybersecurity) Magazine

The statistical fact that one is more likely to be killed by a shark attack than a terror attack lends credence to the suggestion of ulterior motives to this bill—especially considering its huge implications; global surveillance.

But doesn’t this just affect Australians?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. As Facebook, Google, Apple & others are global corporations, any modifications they make to their products due to compliance with this legislation are necessarily going to apply globally. It’s near impossible to install internal server-side software that only and strictly applies to a geographical region while still having a worldwide reach. If nothing else, costs would be extremely prohibitive to implement this.

Don’t forget, Australia is part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement, which also includes Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

Australian politicians would not have been able to write and pass this bill if not for explicit co-operation from all the United States, UK, Canada & New Zealand.

What will happen if the law is passed and the tech giants comply?

It is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate concern that rogue intelligence agencies will take advantage of this legislation to gather all the data they can on any persons they wish to, with the pretense of them being a broadly-defined “security concern”.

The arguably greater concern at first lies in the fact that the tech companies we all mostly now rely on will have unfettered, unrestricted access to know and see everything they possibly can about us.

And I do mean everything; from passwords to private home videos and one’s files in cloud services, to chat conversations and live video conferences.

Not only this, but having to install a backdoor into end-to-end encryption leaves a gaping hole in security for nefarious groups and hackers to find and exploit. There is absolutely zero reason to suggest such people won’t be trying with all possible available resources to find a way into these private information gold mines.

What can you do?

Help people become more aware of what is happening right under our noses. The more people that know what’s going on, especially in Australia where this law is in the process of being legislated, the more opposition and difficulty will arise for those wanting this implemented.

Conspiracy enthusiasts (I like that term better, don’t you?) will be quick to point out that this is all part of the globalist agenda to concentrate all world powers into a single world body in charge of all laws, law enforcement and militaries, with dominion over all earth’s citizens.

While I’m not going to advocate this theory now, what we are definitely seeing is a strong tangible push towards less human rights and more government and corporate control.

Do something.

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Links:

Encryption: Why we’re in choppy water for the future of digital security – https://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/420112-encryption-why-were-in-choppy-water-for-the-future-of-digital-security

Australia passes law forcing tech giants to circumvent encryption on target devices – https://www.scmagazine.com/home/australia-passes-law-forcing-tech-giants-to-circumvent-encryption-on-target-devices/

Wow, what a lovely early Christmas present for Australians: A crypto-busting super-snoop law passes just in time – https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/07/australias_crypto_legislation/

Australia passes controversial anti-encryption law that could weaken privacy globally – https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/7/18130391/encryption-law-australia-global-impact