Google warns about ‘monumental’ FBI hacking
US Internet giant Google is opposing a proposal by the US Justice Department to increase the FBI’s power to infiltrate computer systems around the world.
In a strongly worded submission to a Washington committee that is considering the proposed changes, Google said the plan would allow “government hacking of any facility wherever located.”
The company warned the little-known Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules that under the new proposals, FBI agents would be able to conduct covert raids on servers anywhere they are situated, giving the US government unregulated global access to enormous amounts of private data.
Google says that increasing the FBI’s powers set out in search warrants would “substantively expands the government’s current authority,” and “raises a number of monumental and highly complex constitutional, legal and geopolitical concerns.”
"This concern is not theoretical," said Google. "The nature of today’s technology is such that warrants issued under the proposed amendment will in many cases end up authorizing the government to conduct searches outside the United States.”
Such broad authority would potentially give the FBI the power to spy on any computer server in the world, threatening both innocent web users, as well as US relations with other countries.
“The US has long recognized the sovereignty of nations,” Google wrote. “The jurisdiction of law enforcement agents does not extend beyond a nation’s borders.”
The US Department of Justice claims that the change is necessary, because Internet “anonymizing” technologies are making it difficult for prosecutors to identify the location of criminals.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also wrote a letter to the judicial committee to express its concerns about the new proposals.
“We continue to have serious concerns about the breadth of the proposed amendment,” the ACLU wrote, adding that the committee should “proceed with extreme caution before expanding the government’s authority to conduct remote electronic searches.”
“The proposed amendment would significantly expand the government’s authority to conduct searches that raise troubling and wide-ranging constitutional, statutory, and policy questions,” it added.
Privacy concerns have come to the forefront following disclosures by US whistleblower Edward Snowden about the extent of spying by the National Security Agency (NSA).
AHT/HRJ
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