Dutch Bill Seeks To Give Law Enforcement Hacking Powers

An anonymous reader writes "The Dutch government today presented a draft bill that aims to give law enforcement the power to hack into computer systems — including those located in foreign countries — to do research, gather and copy evidence or block access to certain data. Law enforcement should be allowed to block access to child pornography, read emails that contain information exchanged between criminals and also be able to place taps on communication, according to a draft bill published Thursday and signed by Ivo Opstelten, the Minister of Security and Justice. Government agents should also be able to engage in activities such as turning on a suspect's phone GPS to track their location, the bill said. Opstelten announced last October he was planning to craft this bill."

Child porn

[readingaccount]

Ah good - they've been paying attention and made sure to include the good ol' "child pornography" bit in the list of reasons as justification for breaking into someone else's machine. No bill can be taken seriously without that think-of-the-children element added to it.

Re:Child porn

[JaredOfEuropa]

I think child porn ought to be the legislator's Godwin: mention it, and your bill gets shit-canned automatically.

Incidentally, the bill goes beyond hacking into suspects' computers. It also states that suspects (not convicted criminals) can be forced to hand over encryption keys, if they are suspected of serious crimes. So in the interest of making things easier for investigators, we've done away with an important legal principle ("nemo tenetur") which states that suspects cannot be forced to aid their own prosecution. The minister thinks that this principle should be set aside for, you guessed it, suspects of terrorism or kiddie porn.

Re:Child porn

[JaredOfEuropa]

Actually, it does. As a suspect, you are not obliged to hand over evidence or tell the police where to find it if they ask for it, and you can not be punished for withholding this information. However, the police are authorized to obtain this evidence by other means, i.e. busting down your door and looking for it, or asking someone else who is not a suspect and thus not protected by nemo tenetur.

There are several EU countries where this principle is interpreted narrowly (certainly the Netherlands), and the law in some cases does compel suspects to hand over documents and keys while retaining only the right to literally remain silent, but the European Human Rights Court has overturned many convictions obtained thus on appeal. Even in cases where suspects of tax evasion got fined for not handing over incriminating records (and the tax agencies over here are notorious for being allowed to do whatever the hell they please in order to get at your cash).

Re:A Green Light to all Hackers

[Erik Hensema]

No, this is completely normal. For example, governments have a monopoly on violence (see wikipedia [wikipedia.org]). Citizens don't have the freedom to shoot each other, for example. A police officer does have the right to shoot under certain circumstances.

This isn't something from the past few years. Governments have reserved certain rights to itself for many centuries, in order to maintain civil order and sovereignty.

So, it's also completely normal that the government reserves the right to hack into computers under certain circumstances. For example, permission from a judge is needed. You can compare this to a search warrent for a private home, also the exclusive right for the government.