George Brandis’s proposal criticised by advocates who say it could undermine privacy and free speech

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

An Australian push to persuade western intelligence partners to make it easier to decrypt messaging services and devices could “threaten global internet security”, privacy and free speech advocates have warned.

Australia’s attorney general, George Brandis, said this week he would approach the Five Eyes intelligence network – made up of the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia – to consider imposing greater legal obligations on device manufacturers and social media companies “to cooperate with authorities in decrypting communications”.

Brandis pointed favourably at UK laws that require manufacturers and messaging providers to give greater assistance to authorities in decrypting messages.

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But Jim Killock, the executive director of Open Rights Group, said “such an agreement could threaten global internet security” and warned it might become a template for countries with poor human rights records.

“We need assurances that demands for companies to modify their products do not put users’ security at risk,” he said. “There needs to be clear regulation and oversight of these notices, with companies being given the opportunity to appeal demands that are unreasonable.

“The Snowden leaks showed how close arrangements between Five Eyes countries can undermine the proper oversight and regulation of surveillance capabilities at a national level.”

Shahid Buttar, the director of grassroots advocacy at the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, said the efforts could not only jeopardise internet security “but also the freedom of expression on which democracy rests”. But the attempts would also be futile, he said.

“Any country that tries to criminalise the use of math to encrypt communications will ultimately encourage people seeking privacy to migrate to competing services based in other countries.”

Privacy International’s legal officer, Scarlet Kim, said: “Malcolm Turnbull has made some points about balancing the rights of innocent people against the rights of terrorists. But that balance is not an accurate picture of how decryption mandates play out.

“When you undermine encryption you’re undermining a core security measure that protects all of our communications. To the extent that the government thinks it can undermine encryption for a small subset of people, [that] is basically a fallacy.”

Kim said Brandis should be discussing encryption with the public, not the intelligence community.

“Australians need to be involved in this discussions,” she said. “It’s quite worrisome that Australia would push this debate up to a level when even at the domestic level it’s not really clear what the reason is for justifying these powers.”

The Australian government says the measures would help security services with terrorism investigations.

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The government also has telecommunications laws before the parliamentary intelligence committee. The telecommunications industry has argued they give broad discretion to the attorney general and security services to monitor and police telecommunications infrastructure.

Guardian Australia understands Labor has not yet committed to supporting the national security proposals.

Malcolm Turnbull warned parliament this week that encryption was vital for all users of the internet but also hampered terrorism investigations.

“We need even stronger cooperation from the big social media and messaging platforms in the fight against terrorism and the extremism which spawns it,” he said. “Encryption, for example, is a vital piece of security for every user of the internet, protecting all of us as we go about our lives, from shopping, to banking, to chatting online.

“However, encrypted messaging applications are also used by criminals and terrorists. At the moment much of this traffic is difficult for our security agencies to decrypt and indeed for our Five Eyes partners as well.”

Brandis declined to comment.

Contact Paul Farrell securely using the Signal messaging app on +61 457 262 172 or over email at paul.farrell@theguardian.com