Aardvark Daily

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The policeman in your PC

2 December 2008

When I saw that Google had launched StreetView for New Zealand today I immediately thought it would be the topic for the tech column - but then I spied a far more chilling story on the wires.

Now I strongly expect that most of NZ's internet users will spend inordinate amounts of their day or evenings over the coming week, just "cruising" the streets of the nation from their computers.

Yes, it's a very cool application and I've already been playing with it for hours - checking out old haunts and trying to find key views that will give me an indication exactly when the camera passed by.

No doubt there will be a lot of Kiwis who end up being caught in embarrassing situations by the StreetView cameras, just as has happened in other countries. If you've spotted one, please let us all know

To assist this process, I've set up a topic in the forums where you can post your best StreetView scene.

But today's column is not about StreetView -- well not completely.

What I spotted on the wires this morning that is a whole lot more intrusive and affects people's privacy a lot more than a roving camera. It is a report that police in the EU will be given powers to remotely search (aka "snoop") on people's hard-drives while they're online.

And, it's not just EU police that will be involved -- Interpol will also be in on the act.

As usual we'll get the "only those with something to hide have anything to fear.." line of justification and it must be acknowledged that such a move may well help squash botnets and crimes such as kiddy-porn and fraud.

But at what price?

Surely, if we're going to allow police to invade our PCs and covertly search them with impunity then we should be just as happy to allow them into our homes so as to check we're not growing dope, harbouring terrorists or receiving stolen property.

Now I'm pretty sure that nobody in their right mind would accept without protest, a law that allowed Constable Plod and his mates to break into your house when you're out (or even while you're having a snooze) and then rummage around in your undies draw or the filing cabinet that holds all your private records.

So where's the outrage from the world's internet users?

Remember that even though these plodsters are based in Europe, I see no reason why they won't poke their noses into *any* and *every* computer they find on line and believe maybe "of interest" to them.

Clearly, such searches on a computer based in NZ would be against our anti-hacking laws -- but do you *really* think that the NZ police would take action against Interpol or a European police force? Of course they wouldn't.

And, if this invasive tactic starts showing results, how long before NZ sets up its own invasive cyber-force to "keep an eye" on the contents of Kiwis PCs?

I'm sorry but the way I see it -- my hard-drive is just as private a place as my bathroom.

Yes, my PC maybe connected to the Net (by way of a modem and DSL connection) but my bathroom is connected to the street outside (by way of a hallway and concrete path). If you invade my hard-drive you're effectively doing the same thing as poking your nose around the curtain while I'm showering -- and that's simply not an acceptable thing for police to be doing.

What do readers think?

Would you be prepared to give up yet another right (to privacy) if it meant you might be saved from a terror attack or online fraud? Would it be worth having the privacy of your PC invaded if it meant that a few more kiddy-porn offenders might get caught?

Or is this a(nother) step too far in the trade-off between rights and safety?

I wonder if the cops will use StreetView and Google Earth to check out your house before they invade your PC? :D

And what about this for a plausible scenario...

You download some encryption software and play around with it for a while.

This leaves a couple of encrypted files on your disk that you forget about.

The police snoop around your hard-drive while your online and find these encrypted files. They turn up at your house and demand the decryption key.

But you've long since forgotten that key.

Doesn't matter -- under law it's an offense (punishable by jail-time) not to turn over an encryption key when asked to by the authorities.

Now you're showering with bubba for several years.

But did you really commit a crime?

Don't scoff, less likely things *have* happened.

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