The Guardian, May 14, 2020

By Josh Taylor

The federal government has reassured the public that Covidsafe data held by Amazon will not be able to be accessed by US law enforcement, but a parliamentary committee is currently investigating separate legislation that would pave the way for US law enforcement to access data held in Australia.

Business Software Alliance APAC policy director Brian Fletcher told the committee there was not adequate redress to prevent companies facing legal action in situations where Australian law was in conflict with overseas law.

“The only reason that a provider could challenge an IPO that has been issued to them, would be in writing to the Australian designated authority on the basis that the IPO does not meet the designated international agreement,” he said on Wednesday. “We would like to see the ability for technology providers to challenge on a wide range of considerations including that the data no longer exists.”

If the IPO legislation passes, Australia will still need to negotiate an international agreement with the US under the Cloud Act in order to get reciprocal arrangements for data sharing between law enforcement agencies in the US and Australia.

Read More >>

Original Posting: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/may/14/questions-remain-over-whether-data-collected-by-covidsafe-app-could-be-accessed-by-us-law-enforcement