UN rights expert warns Australia’s proposed cybersecurity bill too extreme News
UN rights expert warns Australia’s proposed cybersecurity bill too extreme

Australia’s proposed cybersecurity bill is “fatally flawed” and should be dropped, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy said Thursday.

The expert stated that it was “a poorly conceived national security measure equally as likely to endanger security as not.”

The proposed legislation would force tech companies “to help spy on citizens in various ways, including granting access to phones and other devices,” according to the UN expert. “The Special Rapporteur said it was ‘technologically questionable’ whether the legislation could achieve its aims and avoid introducing vulnerabilities to the cybersecurity of devices, whether mobiles, tablets, watches, or cars, for example.”

The UN Special Rapporteur also stated that the proposed legislation “unduly undermines human rights.” He also stated that “[r]equiring companies to install any software, including modified operating systems, in any device is legislative overreach and is unlikely to meet the principles of reasonableness and proportionality.”