Police in UK hack into personal computers without a warrant
Posted on January 5, 2009 by Chris
Some completely over the top news from across the pond. The police in the UK have decided that it is perfectly OK for them to hack into personal computers without a warrant.
“The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room. Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging.”
Whenever I see a government take these steps (something authorities in the US seem to have been doing with regularity since 2001) the first question that always comes to mind is why is it so difficult to get a warrant? It would seem to me having a judge as a control on this sort of invasion of civil liberties would make a lot of sense.
The time is coming very soon for us to all set up our hard drives as fully encrypted. In fact it may already be here.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under Online Life, Online Regulation
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