China’s new anti-terrorism law will allow it to access encrypted user accounts
China just passed a new anti-terrorism law that would allow the government authorities to demand technical data and help on breaking account encryption from tech companies.
The paranoid among us just got another reason to justify their incessant hand-wringing. China just passed an anti-terrorism law on Sunday that requires companies to hand over technical information and help with decryption whenever the authorities demand it for investigation of terrorist cases.
So if you thought that you could rely on encrypted messaging services to secure your conversations in China, you’re in for a disappointment. Critics of the law have said that the draft version employed a definition of terrorism that was too broad, which means that the state could potentially abuse it and use it for censorship purposes or to crack down on rights activists.
While the Chinese government has argued that the measures are needed to pre-empt and prevent terrorist attacks, opponents say that the new law could end up allowing the government to monitor civilians and even steal technological secrets.
The government ended up dropping demands in the draft version that would require companies to hand over encryption codes out right, but the final version that was passed still gives the government considerable freedom to access users’ accounts.
Still, China’s President Xi Jinping denied that the move was equivalent to setting up backdoors, as Pakistan demanded from BlackBerry, which eventually led to the company exiting the country altogether.
The law will take effect on 1 January next year. However, certain tech firms like Apple do not actually hold the encryption keys to their services or user data, and thus would be unable to hand over any data even if requested to by the government.
This potentially sets the stage for future conflicts over privacy, and it remains to be seen what the Chinese government would do if faced with such a situation. But given that firms like Apple are a huge boon to the Chinese economy, the government may choose to exercise a more lenient approach.
Source: The New York Times
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