Bavaria sanctions police spyware, page 1

Bavaria sanctions police spyware

www.theregister.co.uk

Bavaria has become the first German state to approve laws that allow police to plant spyware on the PCs of terror suspects.

The controversial measures allow local law enforcement officials to plant Trojans on the PCs of terror suspects (and potentially other serious criminals) from the start of August,

The key phrase here is "other serious criminals." This sort of law is passed with the hue and cry of "stopping terrorists" but it is just oh so useful for dealing with other criminals as well. The question remains who decides what "serious" means?

Oh wait a minute...the police would! More from the article

"Bavarian laws, by contrast, allow police to sneak into suspects' homes in cases where attempts to remotely install so-called remote forensic software fail. In these cases, physical search of a suspect's residence would also be allowed. The powers are restricted to cases where "urgent threats" to life are suspected. Importantly judicial warrants would not need to be obtained in these circumstances, Heise notes."

So there really is no need for pesky legal oversight... just the say so of the police that there was a threat.

Can we all say "slippery slope"?

www.theregister.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 7-7-2008 by metamagic]