The FBI is seeking to expand its hacking and surveillance powers through ‘an apparently backdoor route,’ the Guardian reported Wednesday, a move that civil liberties groups say could infringe upon constitutional rights.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed (pdf) an amendment to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, having to do with warrants for remote access to electronic data. The rule changes, according to the DOJ, would make it easier for law enforcement ‘to investigate and prosecute…crimes involving Internet anonymizing technologies,’ such as Tor.
The federal Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules is scheduled to hear testimony on the proposal at a hearing next week.
The Guardian reports:
Under existing wording, warrants have to be highly focused on specific locations where suspected criminal activity is occurring and approved by judges located in that same district.
But under the proposed amendment, a judge can issue a warrant that would allow the FBI to hack into any computer, no matter where it is located. The change is designed specifically to help federal investigators carry out surveillance on computers that have been ‘anonymized’ – that is, their location has been hidden using tools such as Tor.
This post was published at The Daily Sheeple on November 2nd, 2014.
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