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by dastx 2364 days ago
Please note that Fastmail is an Australian service. I would not trust Fastmail with my email privacy. Not because of the company, but because of the encryption laws in Australia.

Food for thought.

3 comments

Reporting on Australia's encryption laws is wildly inaccurate. For one, it does not allow authorities to compel companies or individuals to introduce an encryption backdoor. The law very explicitly addresses this issue, see section 317ZG, which forbids any kind of "systematic weakness" or "systematic vulnerability" and very explicitly states that weakening encryption is included in those definitions.

What's permitted is to build something that targets a particular person in such a way that it cannot possibly affect another person's security.

The example I use (though IANAL) is that a request to backdoor WhatsApp's encryption would not be permitted under the law. However I think that pushing an update that checks for a particular person's hard-coded phone number and forwards messages to law enforcement would be permitted.

The law in question: http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ta1997214...

I don't understand. Email isn't encrypted is it?

And what can the Australian government do that the US government can't these days?

Recent (2018) Australian data encryption laws are insane and archaic. It allows law enforcement to force individuals (including but not limited to developers) or companies to build a back door and requires them not to tell any one, including their employers. I'm not saying the US is better or worse, or that the UK (where I live) is better or worse. I'm raising awareness as not a lot of people know about their data encryption laws.

Personally I'd wanted to move to Australia but stopped chasing that due to their data encryption laws.

Are you suggesting isp’s are more trustworthy in America?

Because you’ve got to get your email over someone’s pipes eventually.

Fastmail is excellent. If you want secure/private/not easily spoofable by a 5 year old and you’re using email.... then you’re doing it all wrong.

> Are you suggesting isp’s are more trustworthy in America?

Certainly not.

My comment is relating to their data encryption laws that was passed in 2018. If you care about your privacy in any way, shape or form, individuals should be very wary of using services that operate from, or are owned by individuals in Australia (and the rest of the 5 eyes for that matter) unless you have your encryption keys and all encryption happens on your client app.