The Assistance and Access Bill 2018: One year later
A bit technical and with a focus on Australia but has global (5 Eyes) implications for internet surveillance and the efforts of open-source projects like LOKI to protect us.
TOLA provides the legislative authority for agencies to create and install monitoring tools and other intrusive mechanisms into all kinds of software and hardware. For this iteration of the bill, these tools can only be switched on and used to target crimes with minimum sentences of 3 years or more. However, there is nothing to say that won’t change in the future, and very little juducial or public oversight is required by this bill in its current form. It is also extremely problematic that these tools will even exist in the first place. If they fall into the wrong hands, the effects will be devastating. The NSA in the US developed a range of surveillance techniques that were eventually leaked and used against American interests by criminals and foreign governments, and the same will likely happen here.
https://loki.network/2019/12/06/the-assistance-and-access-bill-one-year-later/