Australian Attorney General George Brandis will meet with Apple this week to discuss gaining access to encrypted information from “suspected terrorists and criminals,” Sky News reports.
Brandis said he hopes companies can be convinced to comply voluntarily, but said the country “will also be legislating so that we do have that coercive power if need be if we don’t get the cooperation we seek.” Facebook and other tech companies have raised serious concerns they will be forced by security agencies to hand over their user data.
Apple won a very public fight with the FBI over the company’s refusal to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone and has supported the fights of tech giants like Google against having their data seized as well, but is under increased pressure in places like China to keep tabs on users and limit which apps are available.
