ByBill Toulas-June 29, 2019.043 Internationally, piracy rates are falling as people find streaming services decent enough and cheap enough. That can change as soon as the market for video-on-demand is overcrowded and fragmented. As the market takes its final shape lesser players will be pushed out as giants set up. Australia’s Anti-Encryption Bill will be implemented through Christmas
ByNitish Singh-December 5, 2018.045 Figure 1 Image Courtesy of Pexels Earlier this year the Australian government revealed details of an anti-encryption bill. It will be introduced before year’s end and full details are yet to be released. Encryption is one of the biggest obstacles to intercepting criminal activity in the digital age. Through messaging apps and other communication channels providing end-to-end encryption and restricting access to any outside parties, it has become very convenient for users to keep prying eyes away from their contact through law enforcement and the government. Australia’s set to change that with its new Access and Assistance Bill. The bill was first revealed in August 2018 but it left out finer details about the new law. We still need to learn more about how far the government will have access to user data. It was revealed that Australia’s federal government and labor party had come to an agreement on the aid and access bill. According to Australia’s government, 95 percent of all offenders under police surveillance use encrypted messaging apps. However, an anti-encryption law also means that citizens lose their privacy rights, and the law enforcement can easily see personal user data at any given time. Tech firms will also be forced to implement backdoors in their apps to enable government bodies to access user data whenever they wish. The Government has suggested that federal and state law enforcement agencies should have access to data when investigating crimes related to child sex offenses including illegal drugs and guns in Australia. The Labor Party, however, rejected the idea and argued that only cases of terrorism and child sex crimes would lead to access by federal agencies, while state governments should not have access to any data at all.