![]()
The British Home Office has allowed a new policy that will enable UK police to hack into people’s home computers without a warrant.
The British Home Office has allowed a new policy that will enable UK police to hack into people’s home computers without a warrant.
The decision was made to allow the controversial procedure at a gathering of the European Council of Ministers in Brussels. The move has angered civil libertarians who see it as an invasion of privacy.
Under the new law, police across the EU have been given the go ahead to implement warrantless surveillance to what many consider to be an intrusive level.
A remote search of someone’s computer can be granted if a senior officer says he “believes” that it is “proportionate” and necessary to prevent or detect serious crime – defined as any offence attracting a jail sentence of more than three years.
According to reports in today’s Australian, MPs and civil liberties groups believe that the broadening of such intrusive surveillance powers should be regulated by a new act of parliament and court warrants as it disregards the entire notion of personal privacy.
Richard Clayton, a researcher at Cambridge University’s computer laboratory, said that remote searches had been possible since 1994, although they were very rare. An amendment to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 made hacking legal if it was authorised and carried out by the state.
Source:
The Australian
