The US Supreme Court is expected to approve new hacking powers for the FBI, allowing the agency to access computers in any jurisdiction including overseas. The court is expected to back the controversial rule change by May 1.
Normally magistrate judges can only order searches within the jurisdiction of their court, which is typically limited to a few counties.
The US Justice Department has described the new rule as a procedural change needed to modernise the criminal code for the digital age, and said it would not permit searches or seizures that are not already legal.
But Google and civil liberties groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and Access Now, claim the change would vastly expand the ability of the FBI to hack into computer networks, despite the US Constitution’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
