Short Bytes: According to the updated rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, law enforcement agencies can target people who either use privacy tools or those who are a victim of the same. This small amendment might bring a big change in the way we see the law enforcement.
As reported, this Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure define the rules for criminal prosecutions. This update in the federal rule might bring an enhanced expansion in law enforcement’s ability through which remote using privacy tools can be engaged to gather evidence, with zero public debate on the new powers.
On the TOR and VPN side, this change in rule might enable the government surveillance team to track people who reject location tracking by apps on their smartphones.
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This new updated rule has been passed from the Supreme Court and is headed to Congress. Besides people using proxy methods to hide their information, this rule can also target people who have been a victim of malware as those victims could also prove to be a source of potentially harmful botnets.
Does that mean this rule is not going to spare anyone virtually? If someone has already been targeted but there is no evidence, then it might happen that a malicious program targeted on his/her computer might open the door as him/her being a ‘source of potentially harmful botnets’.
Congress has until December 1 to strike down the amendment to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, otherwise, it’ll come into force across the federal court system.
According to Electronic Frontier Foundation, this law amendment could equally affect people outside the US. Making such a huge change via a ‘small’ procedural amendment sidesteps both legislative and public scrutiny.
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