Proton Mail at odds with Australian Online Safety Regulator

Proton, the encrypted email service, is prepared to go to court against the Australian online safety regulator if it is required to weaken encryption as outlined in proposed standards.

The eSafety commissioner has suggested that cloud and messaging service providers should be able to detect and remove known child abuse and pro-terror materials, as well as prevent the creation of new material of that nature. Privacy and security groups are concerned that the current draft standards could potentially lead to compromised encryption.

However, privacy and security groups argue that the draft standards could allow the commissioner to force companies to compromise encryption. Proton, along with other organisations like Mozilla and Tor Project, expressed concerns in an open letter and urged against implementing scanning measures that pose a disproportionate risk.

Founder and CEO of Proton, Andy Yen, has stated that the proposed standards would infringe upon users' privacy by forcing online services to access and read private conversations. He told Guardian Australia: “We didn’t change our product or break encryption in Iran, or in Russia, and we won’t in Australia either,” he said. “However we have no intention of leaving Australia. Should we receive an enforcement notice to break end-to-end encryption we would be prepared to fight it in the courts.”

A spokesperson for the eSafety commissioner said Inman Grant welcomed feedback on the draft standards – including on the technical feasibility exception.

Feedback on the draft standards is open until 21 December.

- CyberBeat