UK- Police to hack personal computers without court warrants

1-6-2009 United Kingdom:

In a move likely to incite fervent reaction from privacy advocates, police authorities in the United Kingdom have this week been given the power to ‘hack’ into the computers of suspects without first securing a search warrant.

The British Home Office, which granted the permission, is also reportedly drawing up plans that will increase levels of access so that police across the European Union (EU) are able to gather information from computer hardware based in the British Isles.

A hack by any other name, the practice of “remote searching” involves the installation of a key-logging device into a suspect’s computer, or the dispatch of an e-mail equipped with a hidden virus that invades the suspect’s system and relays private information to a waiting remote surveillance team.

According to police authorities in Britain, remote searching has become a vitally important tool in helping track down online criminals and sex offenders.

The Independent reports that, while the practice has thus far been applied sparingly, civil liberty groups are concerned such permissions could drastically expand its usage and contribute to the erosion of privacy.

Responding to the Home Office’s decision, which will hand power of assessment and approval to a police chief constable, human rights group Liberty has said it has strong legal grounds in the UK and the EU to challenge remote searching.

According to the organisation’s director, the police should still be required to seek a court-approved warrant prior to hacking someone’s personal computer, and any expansion of power handed to the police should be subject to parliamentary regulation.

Allowing the police to hack computers without court-secured approval is yet another move in what many see as the UK becoming something of a nanny state.

Specifically, the country already has genetic details of more than four million residents registered on a national DNA database and is expected to begin issuing biometric identity cards at the end of 2009. ..News Source.. by Stevie Smith