Geel_jire Posted January 5, 2009 THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant. The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws. 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. The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned. A remote search 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. He said the authorities could break into a suspect’s home or office and insert a “key-logging” device into an individual’s computer. This would collect and, if necessary, transmit details of all the suspect’s keystrokes. “It’s just like putting a secret camera in someone’s living room,” he said. Police might also send an e-mail to a suspect’s computer. The message would include an attachment that contained a virus or “malware”. If the attachment was opened, the remote search facility would be covertly activated. Alternatively, police could park outside a suspect’s home and hack into his or her hard drive using the wireless network. story I thought the Americans had it bad with their warrantless wiretaps, now it just seems like childsplay. One of the more interesting things about this story is they dont even pretend to be concerned with oversight .. hech even no lip service to individual privacy. I was told that in case you do encrypt your hard drive.... refusing to turn over your encryption keys could net you 2~5 years in prison based on what they think you 'might' be hiding. as if constantly being on camera (CCTV) and the oyster card wasn't bad enough ... now this. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Baluug Posted January 5, 2009 What's wrong with the oyster card? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar Posted January 5, 2009 Adduunka waa isku soo dhamaaday. Democracy? Liberties? My kuunto cambuulo. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacaylbaro Posted January 5, 2009 Now they shouldn't blame the Africans and the third world as long as they are (the westerns) are taking the same path each day ..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Geel_jire Posted January 5, 2009 Originally posted by Cadaan: What's wrong with the oyster card? It allows the authorities to track your commute and they keep the logs for years. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
