UK Police Legally Allowed to Hack into Computers. Without a Warrant.
Written on 5th January 2009
14 COMMENTS 
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
British citizens will soon have their personal computers scrutinized by the police at any given time under new plans on electronic surveillance from the European Union council of ministers. According to The Times, police will not need a warrant to do so either and to add further fury, Ministers are also drawing up plans to allow police across the EU to collect information from computers in Britain. Material gathered includes all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging ‘chats’.
Hacking has been quietly adopted by police across Britain, saying it is vital for tracking cyber-criminals and paedophiles and is used sparingly but civil liberties groups are very concerned.
“These are very intrusive powers, as intrusive as someone busting down your door and coming into your home. The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judicial authorisation. Without those safeguards it’’s a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy,” the paper quoted Shami Chakrabati, Director of Liberty, as saying.
In this day and age, ‘Freedom’ is a very difficult ideal to define. Freedom in the UK is of course very different to what someones definition is in China. However, the fact that your personal computer, probably one of the most personal items in ones home, can be subjected to search at any given time without the requirement of warrant…crosses the line, irrespective of nation or culture.
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UK Police legally allowed to hack into computers. Without a warrant. http://is.gd/eBaq
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UK Police Legally Allowed to Hack into Computers Without a Warrant. Linux here I come. http://tinyurl.com/a6lnyj
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Sometimes I’d like to live in a hut away from most of thw world until it grows up a bit and sorts itself out. http://is.gd/eBaq
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Big Brother’s gonna be watching you! http://tinyurl.com/a6lnyj
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Another sign the UK gov’t doesn’t understand the Internet and is happy to intrude on users, this time without a warrant http://bit.ly/VSwA
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The UK privacy laws are beginning emulate china’s. http://is.gd/eBaq
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[...] comes after news we posted earlier this week about UK Police being legally allowed to hack into users computers without a warrant. Both being EU directives, these laws are likely to not focus exclusively on the UK but the EU [...]
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBritish citizens will soon have their personal computers scrutinized by the police at any given time under new plans on … [...]