WASHINGTON – The United States and Australia yesterday signed an agreement to ease access by their justice departments to digital phone and email records needed in criminal investigations.
US attorney-general Merrick Garland and Australian Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the agreement would allow both to obtain “timely access” to electronic information vital for serious crime investigations.
Coming under the US Cloud Act, the agreement will allow them to request and obtain suspects’ electronic communications from telecommunications companies in the other country, without first going through a laborious process in the courts.
In effect, it means Australian investigators will be able to obtain the communications of a suspect – even if they are held on a server located inside the US, and that US justice authorities are not part of the investigation.
“The Cloud Act agreement between the US and Australia will make our cooperation to prevent, detect, investigate, and prosecute serious crimes more effective, and in doing so, this agreement will help keep our citizens safer,” Garland said.
Andrews said the pact would enhance probes into terrorism, organised crime, and child sexual abuse.
“Until now, Australian agencies have relied on complex and time-consuming mechanisms, such as mutual legal assistance agreements, to access crucial evidence from other countries,” she said.
“Investigations and prosecutions have stalled, and even derailed, as a result of these arrangements.”
Both officials stressed that rules of privacy and civil liberties would be followed amid concerns that the Cloud Act is opening the door to unjustified searches of individuals’ private information not only by their own governments, but by others as well.
“The agreement protects civil liberties, safeguards the privacy of our citizens, and will ensure our own adherence to the rule of law,” Garland insisted.
The US and Britain signed a similar deal in October 2019. – AFP, December 16, 2021
