Does the Australian government have a current public policy on domestic use of crypto?
There has been silence from the federal government for some time on broader cryptography policy. Activity in this area tends to occur via the executive arm of Government, particularly the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), who have been active recently in updating the associated regulations. In 1996, the Federal Government did make substantial steps towards developing a policy on the use of cryptography in Australia. A report was commissioned from Mr Gerard Walsh, a former deputy head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). On one side of the debate is the argument that free access to cryptography by the general public enables them to fulfil their right to protect the privacy of their communications, including commercially valuable data. On the other side, the government argues that it needs to control the use of cryptography to enable eavesdropping on phone calls, email etc, as well as access to data stored on seized computer systems as part of its law enforcement
