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Coalition asks congressional leaders to stop Rule 41 change
Google, Evernote, and PayPal are joining the usual roster of civil liberties and privacy groups in today’s “Day of Action” to protest changes to electronic search warrant requests. Unless Congress blocks it by Dec. 1, an update to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure will let judges issue search warrants for devices outside their districts, as well as approve warrants that cover hacked devices in numerous districts. Also protesting the change, according to a list shared with MC by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are the American Library Association, the privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo, the VPN service Hide My Ass, the Internet Archive and the tech coalition Reform Government Surveillance, which includes Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo.
“Security experts have decried the changes to Rule 41, stating that increased government hacking will likely have unintended consequences that cause serious damage to computer security and negatively impact innocent users,” the groups wrote today in a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate, urging them to take up legislation to block the change. “The rule changes attempt to sidestep the legislative process by using a process designed for procedural rules to expand investigatory powers. Congress and the public need adequate time to have an informed debate about government hacking — and an opportunity to consider what safeguards must be instituted — before the usage of these dangerous investigative tools becomes widespread.”
The Justice Department insists that the tweak is necessary for confronting the reality of modern electronic investigations. In a blog post Monday, Leslie Caldwell, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division, defended the overhaul. “The amendments do not change any of the traditional protections and procedures under the Fourth Amendment, such as the requirement that the government establish probable cause,” she wrote.
“Security experts have decried the changes to Rule 41, stating that increased government hacking will likely have unintended consequences that cause serious damage to computer security and negatively impact innocent users,” the groups wrote today in a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate, urging them to take up legislation to block the change. “The rule changes attempt to sidestep the legislative process by using a process designed for procedural rules to expand investigatory powers. Congress and the public need adequate time to have an informed debate about government hacking — and an opportunity to consider what safeguards must be instituted — before the usage of these dangerous investigative tools becomes widespread.”
The Justice Department insists that the tweak is necessary for confronting the reality of modern electronic investigations. In a blog post Monday, Leslie Caldwell, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division, defended the overhaul. “The amendments do not change any of the traditional protections and procedures under the Fourth Amendment, such as the requirement that the government establish probable cause,” she wrote.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-cybersecurity/2016/06/coalition-asks-congressional-leaders-to-stop-rule-41-change-janet-yellen-faces-the-cybersecurity-music-ash-carter-touts-cybersecurity-research-214936#ixzz4CE2Zd8yN
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