EU Cops Are Free to Snoop on Citizens' PCs
Sacre bleu! French and German police can now routinely hack PCs and browse data -- without a warrant.Police from around Europe can now routinely hack into your PC and browse your data -- without requiring even a warrant.
The Home Office has increased police powers to allow officers to monitor email and web activity. It also allows the plod (or le plod) to hack into computers in offices and even homes.
And it's not only the upstanding British bobby who can browse your machine. The EU has stated that police in all member states should be allowed to use 'intrusive surveillance of private property' without a court warrant. In any other member state. On any other member state.
Naturally, not everyone is entirely chuffed with the situation. Shami Chakrabarti of human rights group Liberty said in a statement: "This is no different from breaking down someone's door, rifling through their paperwork and seizing their computer hard drive."
And if that's the view of leftie liberals, imagine what the Daily Mail brigade will make of horrible Frenchies and Nazis being able to look at your email.
Not least because -- whichever way you look at it -- 'remote searching' requires the infection of a suspect's PC. Keylogging, viruses spread by email... it's all legal if a copper does it.
With great power comes great responsibility, and you'd have to be pretty conformist to believe that such legal hacking will have only good consequences.
Matt Egan, PC Advisor