Cold Comfort
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that the government he leads will never see the data on the nation’s imminent coronavirus-busting-and-contact-tracing app.
Considering the PM turnover rate in Australia over the last decade, this statement will only have a valid lifetime of, what? 12-months at the outside? Then there will be a different leader, and all bets are off.
"... into a national data store that is fully encrypted and the Commonwealth Government has no access whatsoever to the information.”
Considering in Australia the government has the legal authority to issue decryption orders, something being encrypted is no protection from the government.
I haven't seen mention of how long the data will be retained for, therefore whether he or his or the current or even the next government may never access the data, what about a different near-future government?
And has the My Health Record fiasco shows, the government (this government) is fully capable of changing its own laws it finds inconvenient. For example, the original MyHR Act had it as an opt-in service. However, take-up was so low the government changed the law to make it opt-out. Therefore their word or any current legislation they pass is meaningless, as they have a proven history of going back on their word - and their own already enacted legislation - and change it and the legislation to do what they promised they would not do.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
