A proposal that Washington bureaucrats be given nearly unfettered permission to hack into private computers, which WND reported earlier was being described as the ultimate “Big Brother” move, is drawing strong opposition from privacy activists and members of Congress.
“We’re in the midst right now of one of the biggest battles in the privacy world that we have faced,” said U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, on a website mobilizing opposition. “If we keep down this path, we’re going to wake up in a few years in George Orwell’s 1984. This is why, as we fight for security, any intrusion on privacy needs to be narrowly tailored and aggressively overseen.”
WND reported last month when the alarm was raised by the Rutherford Institute, which offered its assistance to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is opposing the rule change.
At issue is a proposed change to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41, which addresses search warrants.
If the change is adopted, Rutherford warned, it would “erode individual privacy” by granting vast new authority to investigators.
Rutherford said the DOJ’s proposed changes “have been justified as a way to fight cybercrime and make it easier for law enforcement to track down cyber criminals who use tools such as Tor, botnets or malware to mask their true location.”
It noted the U.S. Supreme Court already has “rubberstamped” the idea, and Congress has until December to block or change it.
Now, officials representing a coalition of organizations have written to leaders in Congress warning that the change would allow any federal magistrate to authorize invasive computer hacking by law enforcement against just about anyone.
The letter to Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and Reps. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the new strategy would “invite law enforcement to seek warrants authorizing them to hack thousands of computers at once – which it is hard to imagine would not be in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
The new protest is led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Tor Project and several dozen others.
They have set up the No Global Warrants site to express their concerns.