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A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 21 december 2022
Police in Australia co-opted COVID-19 apps to fight crime

By ROD McGUIRK Michelle Falstein, assistant
Associated Press secretary of the New South
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) Wales Council for Civil Lib-
— Biker boss Nick Martin’s erties, said Australia’s 1988
murder at a speedway in Privacy Act was enacted
Perth, Australia, left police before the internet was
a trove of evidence that widely used and long be-
led them to the culprit: a fore virtually every adult
thrill-seeker turned gun-for- citizen and teenager had a
hire. But they wanted more. smart phone.
The coronavirus pandemic “Privacy by design is some-
provided it in the form of thing that legislators or cer-
an electronic dragnet: QR tainly government doesn’t
code check-in data from think about in Australia,”
contact tracing apps of Falstein said.
2,439 fans who attended In Perth, the QR check-
the December 2020 race. in data tapped by po-
A government order re- lice hasn’t been shown in
quiring people to provide court to have anything to
contact tracing informa- do with arresting Nick Mar-
tion in case of a COVID-19 tin’s killer, who has since
outbreak meant that any- pleaded guilty. Identified
one who checked in at in court documents only by
the raceway that day left Mourners gather at a funeral parlor in north Perth, Australia before riding to the funeral of murdered the initials B.L.J., the shooter
their name, phone number Rebels biker Nick Martin at Pinnaroo Cemetery in Perth, Australia, on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020. crawled in through a hole
and arrival time through Associated Press in the fence and fled the
the SafeWA COVID-19 app same way, presumably
or on paper. Police issued everybody down,” Mia Da- enforcement from access- ins that don’t collect and avoiding the QR check-in.
an “order to produce” the vies, leader of the state’s ing such QR data. Multiple house information about His name is being withheld
information to the state opposition National Party, other Australian states and individual whereabouts in by authorities because
Health Department two said in a written statement territories also introduced central databases, said he’s a cooperating witness
days after Martin was shot blaming the government laws to prevent police from cryptographer Vanessa against the man who he al-
and killed. for not legislating safe- accessing contact tracing Teague, an Australian Na- leges hired him for the hit.
Police accessed the data guards from the start. data. tional University privacy re- Ordinary cell phone data
despite Western Australia Western Australia police Some critics blame Austra- searcher. placed B.L.J. at the spot
Premier Mark McGowan’s didn’t respond to requests lia’s lacking privacy regu- An alternative is to store ballistic experts calculated
promise that the data for comment from The As- lations for the way police contact tracing data on the bullet was fired from.
would only be accessible sociated Press. have leveraged informa- people’s individual phones, CCTV showed him at the
to contact tracing person- Unable to negotiate a tion collected for a health so the app user’s informa- track earlier that day wear-
nel. solution with police, Mc- emergency. Comparable tion is only accessed when ing Fila running shoes similar
“They’ve breached the Gowan’s government ul- countries including New they have been in close to those that left footprints
trust of the West Australian timately passed laws in Zealand and the United contact with someone who at the shooter’s vantage
public and they have let June 2021 that banned law Kingdom have QR check- tests positive for COVID-19. point. q

Officials say Pakistan raid kills all Taliban hostage-takers

By RIAZ KHAN and PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) remote northwestern dis- in the operation. plosions were heard as the
MUNIR AHMED — Pakistan’s special forces trict on Tuesday and killed The police center is located raid got underway Tues-
Associated Press raided a police center in a 33 detainees linked to the center in Bannu, in Khyber day. Intermittent gunshots
Pakistani Taliban who ear- Pakhtunkhwa province. continued reverberating
lier this week overpowered The detainees, held at the across the area for two
guards at the facility, the facility for years, had over- hours, officials said.
country’s defense minister powered their guards on Sunday’s takeover of the
said. Sunday. Officials said sub- police center reflected the
Before the rescue opera- sequent negotiations with Pakistani government’s dif-
tion, the Taliban detainees the Pakistani Taliban were ficulties to exercise control
had seized arms and killed unsuccessful. The Taliban over the remote region
two hostages, Defense Min- had demanded a safe along the border with Af-
ister Khawaja Mohammad passage to former strong- ghanistan.
Asif told the parliament. holds of the militant group. The Pakistani Taliban, also
Asif said the remaining hos- Mohammad Ali Saif, a known as Tehreek-e-Tal-
tages were freed Tuesday, government spokesman in iban Pakistan or TTP, are
but did not provide a num- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said separate but allied with the
ber. Earlier, the Taliban had the Taliban hostage-takers Afghan Taliban, who seized
Security officials guard a blocked road leading to a counter- claimed they were holding were given a chance to power in neighboring Af-
terrorism center after security forces starting to clear the at least eight security per- surrender before the raid ghanistan last year as U.S.
compound seized earlier by Pakistani Taliban militants in sonnel. Asif said 15 mem- but refused. and NATO troops were in
Bannu, a northern district in the Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bers of the security forces Thick black smoke billowed the final weeks of their pull-
province, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. were wounded and all 33 into the sky from inside the out from the country after
Associated Press hostage-takers were killed compound after two ex- 20 years of war.q