[AusNOG] Dutton decryption bill

[Paul Gear]

On 12/09/18 17:04, Mark Newton wrote:
> ...
> There is no democratic brake on the advancement of the intelligence
> community’s powers, they continue to do whatever the hell they want,
> with no recourse.
> ...

^ This.  Those in power continue to wield it in ways which benefit
themselves rather than all of us.  I'm not sure what the entire solution
is, but part of it surely must include being open to scrutiny by the
general public.  If there were an equivalent to certificate transparency
logs for our data retention laws and for these proposed technical
assistance requests, you could be sure that they'd be used much more
responsibly and sparingly.

I would also add that nor is there a brake on the advancement of Silicon
Valley's powers.  Imagine if the same public (or near-public) scrutiny
were available for the decisions that large Internet, financial, and
advertising firms make about us...

Paul