I remember serious concerns about Australian citizens suddenly being legally required to be spies for the Australian government regardless of where in the world they're working due to a new anti encryption law sometime in 2016. That and Twitter somehow being caught with their pants down regarding user phone numbers and other personal information makes it all the more important that all the engineers and product people on this site make it very clear to management that the systems must be set up in a way that simply doesn't allow people to access that information. It's morally good and it might prevent you from making the papers as a host of a bunch of spies that got your Chinese, Saudi Arabian, or Turkish users assassinated or jailed.
I don't think this is correct. The legislation as drafted didn't seem to claim extra-territoriality and courts will basically never interpret legislation as being extra-territorial without an explicit clause.
There's also the point that if you are overseas and refuse to comply with a request by ASIO or whathaveyou, they can't legally arrest you outside of Australia. In theory they'd need to ask for your extradition, but that requires equivalent laws to be in operation in the country you're extraditing from. But you'd be at risk of arrest upon returning to Australia.
That doesn't stop it from being a terrible law. And it also doesn't stop me from not being a lawyer who isn't giving legal advice.
In 2018 those laws were actually passed, and there's a tonne of uncertainty around them (which is probably on purpose). It's had a chilling effect on exporting software from Australia, too, at least for two business I've worked with since, though that seems to be warming again lately for better or worse.
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I remember serious concerns about Australian citizens suddenly being legally required to be spies for the Australian government regardless of where in the world they're working due to a new anti encryption law sometime in 2016. That and Twitter somehow being caught with their pants down regarding user phone numbers and other personal information makes it all the more important that all the engineers and product people on this site make it very clear to management that the systems must be set up in a way that simply doesn't allow people to access that information. It's morally good and it might prevent you from making the papers as a host of a bunch of spies that got your Chinese, Saudi Arabian, or Turkish users assassinated or jailed.
I don't think this is correct. The legislation as drafted didn't seem to claim extra-territoriality and courts will basically never interpret legislation as being extra-territorial without an explicit clause.
There's also the point that if you are overseas and refuse to comply with a request by ASIO or whathaveyou, they can't legally arrest you outside of Australia. In theory they'd need to ask for your extradition, but that requires equivalent laws to be in operation in the country you're extraditing from. But you'd be at risk of arrest upon returning to Australia.
That doesn't stop it from being a terrible law. And it also doesn't stop me from not being a lawyer who isn't giving legal advice.
In 2018 those laws were actually passed, and there's a tonne of uncertainty around them (which is probably on purpose). It's had a chilling effect on exporting software from Australia, too, at least for two business I've worked with since, though that seems to be warming again lately for better or worse.