[Scaless]

I am not Australian and have not seen any updates since it was passed, but "forcing companies to build backdoors" is a massive understatement. The government could effectively compel any employee to act as a spy, without their consent. Don't want to play along? Go directly to jail.

> The new law also allows officials to approach specific individuals—such as key employees within a company—with these demands, rather than the institution itself. In practice, they can force the engineer or IT administrator in charge of vetting and pushing out a product's updates to undermine its security. In some situations, the government could even compel the individual or a small group of people to carry this out in secret. Under the Australian law, companies that fail or refuse to comply with these orders will face fines up to about $7.3 million. Individuals who resist could face prison time.

https://www.wired.com/story/australia-encryption-law-global-...

[suifbwish]

So what you are saying is there is absolutely no reason to use any data service hosted in Australia or to trust any tech hardware they produce

[roganartu]

Well, if you want to go to that extreme, probably also ditch any data service hosted by any company that hires an Australian. The law passed was not restricted to Australian corporations, but Australian citizens regardless of where in the world they reside. Since E3 visas (basically an Australian-only H1b) are so easy to get, that's probably just about any US-based company with more than a few hundred employees.

In practice though I don't think anyone actually cares. I certainly haven't been asked about it by any prospective employers and I work in areas of finance where companies are famously protective of their IP.

[brobinson]

This includes the HN favorite service, Fastmail.

[tudorconstantin]

And also Atlassian (jira, bitbucket, etc)