Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Australian Police Given Power To Use Spyware

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the big-brother-actually-is-watching-now dept.

reek writes "An Australian newspaper has reported> that the contentious Surveillance Devices Act has been passed. The act will (according to the article) allow Federal Police to obtain warrants to secretly install spyware onto users computers enabling them to "monitor email, online chats, word processor and spreadsheets entries and even bank personal identification numbers and passwords.""

3 of 450 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A Good Thing? by myowntrueself · · Score: 4, Informative

    "I vaguely remember there's a country where it is illegal to obstruct surveillance by way of encryption."

    The UK, I believe?

    Where its illegal to 'possess any information which might be useful to a terrorist'

    --
    In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  2. Re:Nice by StillNeedMoreCoffee · · Score: 4, Informative

    In the US all they have to do is copyright the spyware's protection mechanisms and then under the DMCA it would be illegal to circumvent that spyware.

  3. Re:what's the big deal? by adjwilli · · Score: 4, Informative

    Over 30,000 federal warrants were request last year. Only 32 were denied.