British police may remotely hack into personal computers and e-mail without warrant
Britain's Home Office will allow police to remotely hack into anyone's computer without a warrant. From the Times:
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 move follows a green light from the European Union, and also permits British police to access U.K. residents' computers at the behest of investigators from other countries. This could allow the British to conduct searches on behalf of local agencies bound by more restrictive policies, sharing the results back with them.
I've been talking folks in the U.K about this, and I think their opinion sums up why no-one there takes this sort of thing seriously. Americans assume a level of competence in bureaucracy, no matter how disorganized its visible operations. The British, however, believe their civil service and police are institutionally stupid, barely capable of executing their basic functions. So the Brits simply can't take seriously the idea that assigning police more powers will affect much of anything.
the latest
latest episodes
Since trade secrets are a highly priced commodity. I imagine how business will react to this new law.
I think it will reach a tipping point where widespread encryption will be adopted by the by regular folks. So, all these privacy issues can go away. Until encryption isn't declared illegal, of course.
It's not illegal, but you can be forced to decrypt
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/85842,uk-encryption-laws-to-come-into-force-soon.aspx
I've written to my member of parliament about issues relating to IT, and I've got family members who work in government, and it's painfully, brutally obvious that those in charge of the UK don't know a single thing about computers.
same shit, different country: germany
:(
That last paragraph perfectly sums up our attitude. But I'd actually take it further. The more the forces of awe and boredom rely on automated policing, the more we'll find ways round the comparatively stupid automated systems and the complete lack of human oversight.
So for instance, we have perhaps the highest concentrations of CCTV cameras, speed control cameras and so on anywhere in the world. But in general *nobody is watching*. The cameras are comparatively easy to spot because their purpose is social control by implication and retrospective law enforcement. Which means that with a small amount of common sense you can live below the radar and avoid ever being seen.
Of course, this also has its downside. Having large numbers of people living below the radar is not necessarily a good thing. As you'll find out when you find yourself having a car accident with somebody avoiding the London congestion charge by having an unregistered, untaxed, uninsured car with plates cloned from some unwitting bystander in Scotland.
hey don't worry, soon enough EVERYONE will under the radar.
"So the Brits simply can't take seriously the idea that assigning police more powers will affect much of anything."
Lulled into a false sense of security?
The incompetence was part of their grand scheme all along?
It's nothing really, Torchwood has been doing it for years.
T
Nothing changes. They can just do it legally now.
Classic example of junk data -- when everyone is supposedly under infinite surveillance, significance is necessarily at a higher threshold, so only the most obvious are vulnerable.
The real danger is in suppression of dissent, if it ever comes to that.
Torchwood is another story: half funded by the CBC, yet airing a year later here in Canada! As a Canuckistan pir8, I have no guilt torrenting it!
C'mon, there's nothing wrong with the government monitoring all our communications data, is there? What's the problem with them knowing what we read, what our political affiliations may be, our religious beliefs, our sexual proclivities?
And if they happen to be opposed to some political movement we belong to, then how can it be a bad thing that they know who we're talking to and associating with? It's not like it gives them an advantage, the ability to thwart our political movements or know who to spy on in more detail to better defeat any opposition!
And now warantless searches and break-ins! But, c'mon, it's not so they can break down our doors and ransack our homes ... just our computers. And we all know things on computers aren't real. It's not the same as them rifling through our papers and diarie!
Police State? It's not happening. Lalalala.
This should be in the main BB blog -- it's much more than about gadgets, and I think is of much wider interest (sorry BBGers -- we love you, but hardly anyone comments here!).