Stanford CIS

Congress Is About to Expand Government Hacking Powers

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"Woodrow Hartzog, a law professor at Samford University who specializes in privacy law, says the history of computer crime law shows that vague language can lead to unintended consequences as technology evolves. “Even slight vagaries or miscalculations can result in dramatic expansions of power,” he says, citing language in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, passed in 1986, that has created “an incredible amount of confusion” over what constitutes a crime. Given the stakes, Hartzog says, the changes to Rule 41 “would seem to require more deliberation and probably some sort of legislative corrective.”"