Germany's supreme court, the Federal Court of
Justice, has ruled that hacking by police is illegal, even when
accompanied by an order from a judge. A new law would be needed
specifically tailored to the activity before it could be legally
carried out, said the court.
Germany already has laws that permit the
searching of PCs on a premises and the secret tapping of phone
lines, but the Federal Court ruled that those laws cannot extend to
court-ordered hacking.
The law related to on-the-premises searching
of computers could not apply because the suspect was likely to be
present at and aware of those searches, which is not the case with
online snooping, said the ruling.
The court said that phone tap legislation
could not be used, because there was a major difference between
rifling through previously made and saved computer files and
activity logs and the listening to phone call communications in
real time.
German press reports said that Interior
Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has supported the police's right to
conduct secret computer searches, and was considering backing a
change in the law that would make such searches legal.
German courts had previously backed the
searches, then overturned that ruling. The current case was an
appeal from a November ruling which said the searches were illegal.
The appeal, by Attorney General Monika Harms, was rejected.
