CDT Joins International Civil Liberties and Technology Coalition to Comment on Australian Telecoms Legislation

To whom it may concern:

The undersigned organizations and companies jointly submit these comments regarding the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) review of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International Production Orders) Bill 2020. We are an international coalition of civil society organizations dedicated to protecting civil liberties, human rights, and innovation online, technology companies and trade associations, as well as technical and policy experts. We appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback on this important process, and to express our reservations about the bill as currently written.

The draft legislation is designed to permit Australia to enter into a bilateral agreement with the United States under the U.S. CLOUD Act, thereby permitting each country to make direct requests for electronic communications information from providers based in the other country. While a number of undersigned organizations and companies are U.S.-based, we bring our experience and knowledge of the CLOUD Act in assessing the International Production Orders bill. We urge you not to move forward with the bill as currently written, because it does not provide adequate safeguards to protect human rights.