Apple criticizes proposed anti-encryption bill in Australia

The Australian government is considering a bill that would oblige high-tech companies like Apple to provide "essential assistance" to government agencies investigating crimes.

According to the Australian government, encryption is problematic because encrypted communications "are increasingly used by terrorist groups and organized criminals to prevent detection and disruption."

As noted by TechCrunchApple today wrote a seven-page letter to the Australian Parliament criticizing the bill.

In this letter, Apple describes the bill as "dangerously ambiguous" and explains the importance of encryption to "protect national security and the lives of citizens" against attackers who find more serious and sophisticated ways of protecting themselves. infiltrate iOS devices.

Faced with these threats, the moment has not come to weaken the encryption. There is a significant risk of facilitating the work of criminals, no more difficult. Increasingly powerful – and not weaker – encryption is the best way to protect against these threats.

Apple says it "challenges the idea" that weaker encryption is needed to facilitate law enforcement investigations, having processed more than 26,000 requests for data to solve crimes in Australia over the past five years. last years.

According to Apple, the wording of the bill is broad and vague, with "ill-defined restrictions". As an example, Apple says the wording of the bill would allow the government to order companies that manufacture smart speakers for the home "to install listening features persistent "or ask the device manufacturers to create a tool to unlock them.

Apple said that additional work on the bill was to include a "firm mandate" that "prohibits the weakening of encryption or the protection of security," the company exposing a wide range of specific concerns that She hopes the Australian Parliament will address. The list of flaws that Apple found in the invoice is in the complete letter.

Apple is fighting anti-encryption legislation and attempts to weaken encryption of the device for years. His most public battle was waged against the US government in 2016, after Apple had ordered the FBI to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of Syed Farook's shooters. in the attacks of December 2015 in San Bernardino.

Apple opposed the order and said it would create a "dangerous precedent" with serious consequences for the future of smartphone encryption. Apple has finally stood firm and the US government has retreated after finding another way to access the device, but Apple has always had to face additional police efforts to combat encryption.

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