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by artichokeheart 2751 days ago
To anyone with a business from anywhere else in the world. Yes please do, publicly and loudly, cease to deal with us (Australia) due to the very real possibility that all of you private and commercially sensitive communications will be monitored and recorded (Also given the five eyes agreement shared with other countries.) Australia already have a history of using their spy services for commercial gain. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia%E2%80%93East_Timor...
5 comments

+1 block us. Apple if you are reading this stop selling us iPhones. Australians need to feel the pain of this otherwise nothing will change.

1 billion dollars wiped from Atlassian already. I’m hoping the markets react more and destroy the industry here.

Might want to assume that all Australian developers are now potentially compromised.

Ugh, Trello is owned by Atlassian. Will this law mean we should assume Trello is compromised? Trello is based in the US, so I'm not sure how that plays out with the law.
If Australians work on it, then yes.
Possible it will go nowhere. How can Apple for example provide a backdoor for imessage which isn't a systemic weakness?
The intelligence service will request a special version of the software which will store the contents unencrypted, or decrypt the existing contents, or send information to a different server.

Then they will coerce a telecommunications provider to install this application on the targets machine (says nothing about having it installed on everybody's machine accidentally or otherwise).

Then they shall profit.

They could be compelled to send firmware updates only to specific phones with a new version of imessage that doesn't perform end-to-end encryption.
have the app store send a special version of the app or system update to robryan that as well as renders the message on the screen also sends it to the gov.
The Government simply defines systemic weakness to be something that doesn’t happen when Apple is coerced to introduce an easily exploitable hole in their security for all products.

I wish I was being facetious.

Considering that isn’t even defined in the bill that just passed I have little hope it will save it.
> have little hope it will save it.

have little hope what will save what?

I bet that the entity that sells iPhones here in Oz is different to Apple inc. and has absolutely no leverage to do anything in software.

Just like Yandex in Russia - legally they buy all of the software from a company in Netherlands, at least that what I heard.

That's how they get around tax.

Apple Inc will sell the phones at high rates to Apple Australia, so Apple Australia can claim they are making zero profit in Australia, so hence have to pay no tax.

God this is so true. I am so ashamed of our so-called representatives.

Please, Apple, do what you know is right and disable all iPhones in Australia. Google, please do the same with Android.

If you have a website, geoblock Australia from it.

Quarantine us from the world. We are sick and will infect you all.

I really hope Apple does this. Half the politicians seem to use iPads for all their computing needs.
I can’t see Apple allowing the Australian government to dictate how they handle security... it’d destroy all confidence in their brand.
They didn't let the pain-in-the-ass FBI go through their shit so hopefully they tell Australia to pound sand too.
> If you have a website, geoblock Australia from it.

Just did.. won't even respond to icmp. My Tokyo and UK sites.

Thanks.

Actually, if it's possible, you could redirect to a page saying the reason you are blocking, that would be even better.

Seriously the world should quarantine us.

This isn't going to help. It'd be better to refuse to do business with Australia, but be sure to show them just what they're missing out on.
No, don't geoblock us. Just refuse to do actual business in Australia. Only allow us to download apps from the U.S. where such broken legislation is not in effect.
Don't think it will help since the agencies can force telcos to mitm the store fronts.
Even this draconian bill I don't think has the power to make telcos mitm sites hosted overseas, does it?

But who knows, this bill seems to be the Christmas gift that keeps on giving! Merry Totalitarian Christmas, everyone!!

Setting up a MITM would just be a small request from a low level technical employee. Just make packets from this IP go to this other IP for this one account.
But if that foreign site is using https then the telco couldn't know which account is logging in.
How do the App Store and play store react to bad HTTPS? Do they allow the user to trust?
While you are probably correct, the world needs to urgently stop doing any business with China first.

And since it’s not going to happen, other countries beyond China unfortunately start to get some funny ideas, too...

China is a 1.3 billion people Australia is 25 million. Big difference when it comes to cost and incentive.
Although, we’re a rich 23 million. Of course China’s middle class more than makes up for it, but there’s a reason tech companies like (liked?) Australia.
yep, I'm working on an encrypted product, and will be recommending we don't launch it in Australia. Tiny market, enormous regulatory burden. Not worth it.
I second this. Please be vocal about how Australian's are now boycotted. We need the government to freak out
As an Australian dev, I concur. I would rather our tech industry die (and I end up digging holes in a coal mine for a living) than have this country become a global spy hub used by governments to subdue their citizens.