Aussie lawyers: Draft cyberlaws could curb rights

CANBERRA: The president of Australia’s top lawyers’ group told a parliamentary inquiry that proposed cybersecurity laws to force global technology companies such as Facebook and Google to help police by unscrambling encrypted messages sent by extremists and other criminals would significantly limit individuals’ privacy and freedom.

A parliamentary committee yesterday began examining a Bill intro- duced last year that is modelled on Britain’s Investigatory Powers Act.

That law has given British intelligence agencies some of the most extensive surveillance powers in the Western world.

The Australian Bill would give security agencies new powers to demand that tech companies help them decrypt data.

Arthur Moses, Law Council of Australia’s president-elect, told the committee that a secret service officer could be able to use the proposed law to sidestep the need for a warrant to arrange a phone intercept.

The Bill also places no time limit on how long a telecommunications employee can be held to assist law enforcement and security agencies, which is arguably detention, Moses said.

“The Bill, as presently drafted, would authorise the exercise of intrusive covert powers with the potential to significantly limit an individual’s right to privacy, freedom of expression and liberty,” Moses told the committee by telephone from Sydney.

Eric Wenger, director of cybersecurity and privacy policy at the US technology giant Cisco Systems, warned that the government could place Australia and its companies at a competitive disadvantage if their data was not regarded as secure.