Reports that police have been granted new powers to snoop on your PC without a warrant have been denied by the Home Office.

According to the Sunday Times report, the Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan via Europe to allow police across Britain to conduct “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers to examine remotely and covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC.

Under the Brussels edict, police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property. The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned.

 

A remote search can be granted if a senior officer says he “believes” that it is “proportionate” and necessary to prevent or detect serious crime — defined as any offence attracting a jail sentence of more than three years.

Following our post yesterday on the police stopping 60,000 people near train tracks under anti-terrorism legislation, we at Barcode Nation have serious concerns that this could lead to another abuse of power. Who defines “proportionate”? Is it the same people that think stopping 60,000 people near train tracks under anti-terrorism legislation is proportionate?

The Home Office has denied any such plans:

A spokesman for the Home Office told the Reg that UK police can already snoop - but these activities are governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and the Surveillance Commissioner. He said changes had been proposed at the last Interior Ministers’ meeting, but nothing has happened since.

 

The German Interior Ministry explained at the time that “almost all partner countries have or intend to have in the near future national laws allowing access to computer hard drives and other data storage devices located on their territory”. But the Germans noted the legal basis of transnational searches is not in place and ministers were looking for ways to rectify this.