Questions remain over whether data collected by Covidsafe app could be accessed by US law enforcement
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.
The defence minister, Marise Payne, argued that because the Covidsafe legislation makes “any transfer of data to any country outside Australia … a criminal offence under the provisions of the bill”, US law enforcement would not be able to get the Covidsafe data.
However, the telecommunications legislation amendment (international production orders) bill 2020 would, if passed, make it possible for Australia to facilitate agreements with other nations so that Australian law enforcement agencies could access data held in those countries and vice versa. It has been developed with the US Cloud Act in mind.
