Police forces to get authoritarian powers to extract data from online accounts
Digital rights campaigners Open Rights Group has condemned the last minute addition of extreme powers to the Crime and Policing Bill. The new additions would give the police the powers to extract data through a seized device to any online accounts that have been accessed by that device. This could be done without any judicial oversight, just the sign off by a senior police officer.
While the devices must already have been seized, the police have wide discretion to seize devices, for example, on arrest, or during stop and search, if they suspect the device may have been used in crime, without need of a warrant.
ORG Executive Director, Jim Killock said:
“At the last minute, the government has sneaked further authoritarian policing powers into the Crime and Policing Bill. The police cannot be allowed to mark their own homework when it comes to using such intrusive powers. The whole regime regarding seizures of devices needs an overhaul to ensure that, at the very least, there must be sign off by an independent judge or judicial commissioner.”
Existing powers to seize devices
Not all device seizures need a warrant. Many powers to seize devices, eg under PACE 1984, are granted when an officer stops and searches an individual, on suspicion of some kind of crime.
New Clauses 63-70
These clauses added to the Bill yesterday grant powers for police to access any online account and the information within it, on approval of a senior officer, through a seized phone or device.