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“I left Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most oppressive regimes. But the Australian Government’s recent draconian rules remind me so much of home.” Cyber security expert and human rights luminary Manal Al-Sharif reports on the dangers of the new surveillance laws.
When I was a child, I was told that the Saudi government was protecting us from ever-present threats. I was told that the government has ears everywhere through a network of citizen informants. Anyone around us could be an informant. The imam, the school teacher, the work colleague, even my own family and friends – anyone.
This law now allows The Australian Federal Police (and others) to access any online account you have. They can see, modify, even delete your emails, your social media, and any online account if it’s considered a “threat”. They can post on your account pretending to be you. But it’s not just you – everything your kids do online is now at their fingertips. Every private exchange with your therapist, evey private message, everything that lives on your digital devices is at their fingertips.
The threats were varied. The threat of Western ideas was one. The threat of impure thoughts was another. As a woman, I was told every day that the biggest threat to moral purity was actually me. Because I was a woman.
When you live under a dictatorship, there is no such thing as “due process”. Those with power (or connections to power) make the rules, in the moment, and as it suits them. This is what is meant by “unchecked power”.
Last week, the Australian Government created its own latest version of unchecked power, only this time it’s facilitated by technology, when it passed a law called the “the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020”.
You probably haven’t heard of it. They didn’t want you to. The media was suspiciously quiet.
Read more at https://www.michaelwest.com.au/manal-al-sharif-australias-new-surveillance-laws-remind-me-of-home/
