Today shall be remembered as the day USA declared war on the world

[Askold]

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/12/today-the-fbi-becomes-the-enemy-of-every-computer-user-and-every-security-professional-worldwide/

From this day forwards FBI has been given the right to engage in espionage and cyberwarfare against foreign governments and citizens by the US government. Why this was given to FBI instead of CIA or NSA is unclear but the fact remains that a boring little legislative bit known as "changes to rule 41" is comparable to the Patriot act in how any suspicion of criminal activity (note, no proof needed) will make it so that FBI may apply for a warrant to hack into any person regardless of nationality or location. And when I say "suspicion" I mean that when investigating a crime FBI may demand a warrant to hack anyone who has done something that criminals might do (such as using an anonymous network in the same city as the one where crime X was committed.) Basically this is as if the police said that some criminals are black and therefore they want a warrant to go into the home of any black person in the city in the hopes that one of them committed the crime they are investigating...

Are there criminals who use TOR or other means to hide their activity? Yes, but from now on merely using TOR will be seen as a justification for US government to hack your computer.

EFF protested the change citing the poorly (or intentionally vaguely) written rule 41 to be overboard. https://www.accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/archive/docs/Rule41botnettestimony.pdf

That didn't help much.

TL;DR Have you ever denied a smartphone app the right to know your location? If you have done that the FBI can now get a warrant to hack our phone because you have engaged in activity that a criminal might do. THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION.

[ironbite]

Hope they enjoy that.

Ironbite-thats something that is frightening

[suri]

Can you explain how the change to rule 41 allows the things you say it does? The rule 41 changes don't appear to expand the set of warrants that can be issued except by not requiring the location of the media to be searched to be known if technological means were employed to conceal them. For example, if the Feds knew you were "using an anonymous network in the same city as the one where crime X was committed" and are able to get a warrant to search your devices after this rule change, they would have known which district to get in a warrant in and thus not had any problems getting a warrant prior to the rule change.