Austria legalises state spyware amidst strong opposition

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Austria is set to legalise the use of highly-intrusive spyware by state authorities. The government has justified the law in the name of monitoring encrypted messaging applications. Opponents warn that there is no way to prevent the authorities accessing reams of sensitive information on targeted individuals, despite official promises to the contrary. Civil society organisations and opposition parties have promised to challenge the law in court.

On 9 July, Austrian parliamentarians passed a highly controversial bill legalising the deployment of state-sponsored spyware, known as the Federal Trojan (Bundestrojaner), to enable the interception of encrypted communications.

State spyware

The Bundestrojaner bill would give law enforcement agencies the power to install malware on private devices (such as smartphones or laptops) to monitor encrypted messaging applications.

It would do so by amending several laws, including:

  • the State Security and Intelligence Service Act;
  • the Security Police Act;
  • the Telecommunications Act;
  • the Federal Administrative Court Act; and
  • the Judges’ and Public Prosecutors’ Service Act.

The plan sparked widespread concern among privacy advocates, cybersecurity experts, and numerous civil society organisations.

The day before the vote more than 50 organisations, including Statewatch, wrote to legislators.

A joint letter (pdf) called on them to “vote against this dangerous instrument of state surveillance and against a historic step backwards for IT security in the information society.”

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I was just saying this to someone else about a different European country, but it’s also relevant here:

The truth is none of these countries care about privacy. Europe is just as bad (if not worse) as the United States when it comes to privacy, the difference is that the US can surveil and censor most of its citizens simply through pressuring Big Tech companies behind the scenes (or literally just buying the data from them lol), so the US has no need to create laws like this to dismantle E2EE and privacy. Other countries don’t share this “luxury” and have to invade their citizens’ privacy through their courts/legal systems.

Very different tactics being used by the US versus Europe, which is why Europe’s attacks on privacy lately are far more publicized, but the end result is the same.

Dangerous games are being played in the EU right now :frowning:

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I will start using offline devices, print encrypted message on paper and send a letter via post to correspondents. They would do the same for response. It will take some time, money and effort, but it’s worth it.

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