Dutch Bill Seeks To Give Law Enforcement Hacking Powers 114
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."
sure, if dutch officers never plan to travel. (Score:5, Interesting)
they would still be criminals in the other countries. might be troublesome if they plan to travel, while having wire fraud and computer crime charges on their heads...
and well, they're part of the eu so that too, might be unavoidable to remain and not extradite to other eu countries.
Re:Child porn (Score:4, Interesting)
Opstelten has had some help of Robert Mickelson, a notorious child porn producer and child rapist, who used truecrypt. His crimes caused a lot of sheeple to switch sides.
It's not his case that caused them to switch sides. It's the way the prosecutor uses this to support his case, it's the way certain (typically conservative) media use it to feed the fear and confirmation that their customers want, and politicians go along with this trend to not loose the support of their voters.
For those of you not aware of dutch news (Score:2, Interesting)
The Netherlands has seen some high profile DDOS attacks on both its banks and a government service that allows login to government sites (DigiID), The re emerging of this idea is therefor no surprise. It has not been successful so far.
The reason is simple, Americans might complain about the two-party system... well... we got about a dozen. And not all that different in size either. Our current government is "VVD" (Think business rules all democrats) and PvDA which used to be the labour party (socialist) but only if you think Blair was a socialist.
And that is just the politicians. VVD is often the socially acceptable extreme right wing party (same as Republican is the socially acceptable alternative to the KKK) and many a PvDA member is still red and jealous of the red of the SP (Socialist Party).
You can possibly imagine there is some strive, not between the politicians perse but in the fight for both parties to keep their members believing their party is still their party. An example is the current attempt to make being present in Holland illegaly, illegal... it is part of the agreement between the two ruling parties BUT the PvDA has a hard time selling it to some of its backers. (PvDA is really a mix between the Blair type, hard-core sociasts (who were against immigration to begin with) and bleeding hearts, constantly fighting over who is the REAL PvDA).
To understand Dutch politics you got to look at its drugs policy. Blowing, smoking pot, isn't actually legal, it is condoned. But mayors (responsible for the police in their city) want to combat excesses like drug dealers near schools. So they introduced local ordinances to ban selling in some areas.
HOWEVER, Dutch law prohibits the passing of local laws that make things illegal that are ALREADY illegal to begin with. Smoking pot is already illegal so you can't pass a local ordinance banning it near schools. BUT it is also condones, so you can't act against it either. Meaning drug sellers actually won a court case banning them from selling in some areas...
Remember Americans, you might not like your two party system but are you ready for a system in which EVERYONE must be kept happy/miserable?
This new law has little chance, it is just a way to get in the papers.
The defence rests its case... (Score:5, Interesting)
If the hack is at such a level that they have system write access (e.g.. to place taps on communications) then the defence case has a much stronger case just by asking whether the the same channel could be use to plant evidence, whether by the law enforcement agency or by a third party.
Re:For those of you not aware of dutch news (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, I think EVERYONE slightly miserable is the better alternative, opposed to a few people happy and the rest utterly miserable. The poldermodel (sorry for teh dutch) has its merits.
Re:For those of you not aware of dutch news (Score:4, Interesting)
So we have a law on the table. A law which goes against our civil liberties, something that many a party in the opposition is not going to like. However the issue of civil liberties, especially "digital" ones, has always been a political bargaining chip that is easily given up if it can be exchanged for something better. When this law lands in the senate, you can be sure that many parties will be interested in supporting it in exchange for something else.
Living in the Netherlands... (Score:4, Interesting)
Sadly, I have to admit he IS just that stupid.
He's been busy trying to kill privacy while turning a dozen bureaucratic police corpses into a single grand paper mill with vast investigative powers and near-zero investigative ability. Percentage of crimes solved is historically low. Priority appears to be crimes that aren't (example: 440 man DAYS burned on a single 4Chan message of a schoolkid threatening to set his school on fire), as well as traffic violations (effectively turning the police into an extended tax collection agency).
Sadly, he's not going anywhere until the next elections.
Re:A Green Light to all Hackers (Score:2, Interesting)
That's all fine and dandy as long as they are doing it to Dutch citizens. It's the same as searching a suspect's house, warrant in hand. The problems I can imagine arising from this bill will come when they hack into some foreign entity's computers. Jurisdiction, anyone? "Look boss, our suspect works for the American Department of Defense. Let's go hack the Pentagon!" Next thing you know, Amsterdam is bombed back to the stone age.