26 votes

'You bunch of idiots': Australia's tech industry savages Labor for backing bill

6 comments

  1. [2]
    Emerald_Knight
    Link
    Wow. Those were two points that I wouldn't have considered. Two incredibly big problems that could have a significant impact on Australia's tech industry and potentially lock them into a nearly...

    “Companies such as Amazon, Apple, Atlassian, Microsoft, Slack, Zendesk and others now have to view their Australian staff and teams as ‘potentially compromised’,” the open letter says.

    Because it violates the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), they add the encryption bill “just locked Australian companies and startups out of a huge market”.

    Wow. Those were two points that I wouldn't have considered. Two incredibly big problems that could have a significant impact on Australia's tech industry and potentially lock them into a nearly pure Australian market.

    That is, for a lack of better words, profoundly fucking moronic.

    16 votes
    1. [2]
      Comment removed by site admin
      Link Parent
      1. Emerald_Knight
        Link Parent
        Yeah, I saw that. Just today I also saw an article regarding that same Google CEO having to explain to Congress why the search term "idiot" brings up Trump in the results. Luckily the...

        Yeah, I saw that. Just today I also saw an article regarding that same Google CEO having to explain to Congress why the search term "idiot" brings up Trump in the results.

        Luckily the representatives and senators in my state are--for the most part, anyway--quite a bit more technologically literate.

        8 votes
  2. [2]
    demifiend
    Link
    Well, shit. I've been using Fastmail (an Australian webmail provider) since April, but with the passage of this bill I need to reconsider my use of their service. It's not like my email on that...

    Well, shit. I've been using Fastmail (an Australian webmail provider) since April, but with the passage of this bill I need to reconsider my use of their service. It's not like my email on that account is encrypted (it's mostly spam), but this still doesn't bode well.

    4 votes
    1. Deimos
      Link Parent
      FastMail made a blog post about it a few months ago: https://fastmail.blog/2018/09/10/access-and-assistance-bill/ They don't like the potential effects on the industry, but don't think it changes...

      FastMail made a blog post about it a few months ago: https://fastmail.blog/2018/09/10/access-and-assistance-bill/

      They don't like the potential effects on the industry, but don't think it changes much for FastMail users specifically.

      5 votes
  3. [2]
    Neverland
    (edited )
    Link
    So yeah, the law is dumb. It is so dumb, that even “idiots” in power could have easily found out about the economic implications. From what I’ve read elsewhere it was only supported by Labour...

    So yeah, the law is dumb. It is so dumb, that even “idiots” in power could have easily found out about the economic implications. From what I’ve read elsewhere it was only supported by Labour because of fear of being called “weak on terror.”

    My question: is News Corp so all powerful in Australia that even the liberals are scared of their “weak on terrorism” messaging? I mean in the USA you know that Fox and WSJ are going to be against anything that non-conservatives do, so I think most liberals just don’t give it too much thought. Is that different in Australia? Does the public not realize how biased Murdoch news is, or do even non-Murdoch news properties do things like calling politicians “weak on terrorism?”

    Edit: clarity, phrasing

    4 votes
    1. Algernon_Asimov
      Link Parent
      They are the largest media company in Australia (maybe the second-largest after Nine took over Fairfax?), and publish the highest circulation newspapers in our two largest cities: The Daily...

      My question is: is News Corp so all powerful in Australia that even the liberals are scared of their “weak on terrorism” messaging?

      They are the largest media company in Australia (maybe the second-largest after Nine took over Fairfax?), and publish the highest circulation newspapers in our two largest cities: The Daily Telegraph in Sydney and The Herald-Sun in Melbourne. In some mid-sized cities and large towns, News Corps publishes the only daily newspaper available. They massively dominate the print news market in Australia (Wikipedia says they have "nearly three-quarters of daily metropolitan newspaper circulation" across the country). If News Corp publishes something, a lot of people will read it.

      7 votes