Changes to Search Warrant Procedures Could Lead to ‘Governme

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Proposed Changes to Search Warrant Procedures Could Lead to ‘Government Hacking of Any Facility’


The proposed changes to the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 — the rule that governs search and seizure — were issued last year by the Advisory Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. The changes could expand the government’s ability to obtain digital information.

In its response to the government’s request for public comments on the proposed amendment this week, Google “[urged] the Committee to reject the proposed amendment and leave the expansion of the government’s investigative and technological tools, if any are necessary or appropriate, to Congress.”

The proposed changes would allow courts in any districts, not just those where the possible criminal activity occurred, to issue a warrant for law enforcement to obtain digital data. Google specifically took issue with that it would allow the government remote searches of electronic data if its location has been “concealed through technological means.”

To Google, this means that remote searches could “take place anywhere in the world,” which it noted would violate the “extraterritorial limitations of Rule 41.”
 
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