Your private messages and photos could be handed over to the government very soon if Malcolm Turnbull and his government get their way.
Our government is considering pushing through laws that could force tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple to give access to our private messages and hand them over to law enforcement agencies.
This opening of a ‘backdoor’ for the government would reduce security for all of us, putting our private lives at great risk and leaving us vulnerable to hacking.
Some tech companies don’t want to do it: Facebook and Apple have publicly said so. But so far we haven’t heard from Google.
Will you add your voice? Get Google to stand up for our privacy and security and reject the government’s proposed laws.
We still don’t know much about the government’s proposal. It plans to model it on the British laws introduced a year ago, which gave intelligence agencies some of the most extensive surveillance powers in the western world.
What we do know is that the government wants internet companies to help Australian security agencies get access to encrypted messages -- messages that no one can read for our security and privacy. Not even the companies themselves.
This is the only way we know our pictures and messages are kept private, and that we won’t be spied on by foreign governments or criminals.
If companies weaken the encryption for the government, they weaken it for everyone else -- leaving you and me vulnerable to being hacked.
Google is one of the most powerful tech companies in the world and its browser is the most used on the internet. If Google speaks out, it could make all the difference.
Turnbull and his government are preparing draft laws to be introduced by the end of the year. Now is the time to make noise about it before it gets any further -- and we need your help to do it.
Tell Google to speak out against our government’s proposed encryption laws now.
The SumOfUs community has come together to protect internet freedom before. When the British government first introduced the Investigatory Powers Act -- which Australia’s proposed laws are said to be modelled on, 70,000 of our friends in the UK spoke out, reached out to their MPs.
And people power got a win: the government announced an independent review into the laws. Unfortunately the law was passed, massively increasing the state’s surveillance powers.
Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen in Australia, too. SumOfUs exists to bring people together so we can use our collective power to stop deals between industry and government that are not in the public's best interest. But we’re nothing without members like you raising your voice.
Add your voice now. Tell Google to stand up for our security and privacy.
More information
ABC News. 14 July 2017.
Sydney Morning Herald. 14 July 2017.
The Guardian. 14 July 2017.
Sydney Morning Herald. 19 July 2017.