The Albanese government is facing pressure to ban Services Australia from using Israeli spyware that cracks the passcodes on people’s phones as part of investigations of alleged welfare fraud after Australia signed on to a White House statement agreeing to limit the use of the controversial technology.
Cellebrite’s technology allows organisations to make a copy of the contents of the phone and potentially bypass the passcode used to prevent the data being accessed. It has been used in Australia over the past several years by government agencies including the Australian federal police, Victoria police, Asic, the ATO, the Department of Defence and Home Affairs.
Guardian Australia first reported about Services Australia’s use of the technology in 2021, noting that it justified the use of the technology as being used for “investigations into fraud and other criminal behaviour” involved in the agency’s programs.
Technology news site ITNews reported this week that Services Australia had allegedly used the technology to investigate whether a woman receiving single parent payments had been in a relationship at that time and, despite charges not ultimately being laid, she was still pursued for repayments.
Guardian Australia has not independently verified the alleged incident. A spokesperson for Services Australia denied Cellebrite technology was used for “member of couple” reviews and reiterated it would only be used when a warrant was obtained.
“Warrants are issued in accordance with the Crimes Act 1914, and are executed by the Australian federal police,” the spokesperson said.
“Cellebrite technology is only used to support potential criminal cases. It is not used in our compliance activities, which aim to prevent avoidable debt as a result of customers being overpaid due to changes of their circumstances.”
The government services minister, Bill Shorten, said he was reassured by the department about how it had been using the technology.
“Services Australia has advised me that Cellebrite is only used in accordance with commonwealth search warrants issues in relation to a serious criminal offence against a commonwealth law,” he said.
“Cellebrite technology is only used to support potential criminal investigations. They have confirmed to me that it is not used in compliance activities.”
Terese Edwards from the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children said the interrogation of single parents’ relationships would be “a really messy and very archaic type of approach” to romantic relationships.
Edwards said that while the integrity of the welfare system was important, the prospect of technology being used in such a manner was likely to exacerbate abuse of women by former partners.
Guardian Australia’s initial report led the Greens’ social services spokesperson, Janet Rice, to pursue the department over the practice during Senate estimates hearings. In a hearing in October 2021, Chris Birrer, Services Australia’s deputy chief executive, claimed Cellebrite wasn’t used for general compliance checks but rather when there was suspicion of serious fraud, including identity theft.
He pointed to people falsely claiming the government’s disaster relief payments as one example. Birrer said the technology was not used in regular payment reviews, but was used in investigating identity fraud when people had their payments hijacked by another person.
The CEO of Services Australia, Rebecca Skinner, said Cellebrite software was “not used for people who are genuinely our customers”.
“Our view is that serious noncompliance is a deliberate act to try to get some of the government outlays associated with social security welfare and, to the extent that we are involved, health,” she said.
Rice told Guardian Australia that “draconian surveillance” should not go unchecked and the Greens would renew interrogation of the use of the technology during estimates hearings in May after the budget.
“I hope the new Labor government will provide clear answers and accountability,” she said. “After the robodebt scheme, I hope the new government will not make the same grave mistakes as the last, and ensure the harm of debt-collection and surveillance of the most vulnerable Australians isn’t repeated.”
The continued use of spyware technology raises questions on whether Australia is contradicting a joint statement it signed in late March with the United States and several other countries arguing for strict controls on the use of spyware technology.
The statement says commercial spyware had been “misused across the world” and represents significant and growing risks to national security. The signatories committed to establishing “robust guardrails” around the use of the technology to ensure it is “consistent with respect for universal human rights, the rule of law, and civil rights and civil liberties”.
Samantha Floreani, a program lead at Digital Rights Watch, said people should be “deeply concerned” about the lack of transparency around the use of Cellebrite. She said the government’s privacy reform agenda could also come into conflict with the use of the technology, especially around whether it is fair and reasonable to collect and use data extracted from phones.
Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said it was concerning that legal powers intended to aid serious criminal investigations were being deployed against people accessing welfare.
“These revelations underscore the need for stronger laws regulating state surveillance in Australia, including the enactment of a federal charter of human rights.”
Comment has been sought from Cellebrite.
Guardian Australia asked the office of the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, last week whether – in light of the White House statement – the government would ban the use of spyware in Australia, but did not receive a response.
