Belgian investigators get new powers to tap smartphones

Federal justice minister Koen Geens has introduced new legislation governing the techniques investigators are allowed to use to gain access to digital communications via computers, smartphones and other devices.
 
The change to the rules concerns the surveillance of a device remotely, without the knowledge of the suspect, in the same way landlines are tapped now. The new law also allows police to create false identities, including fake documents, and to require information from private businesses such as transport companies and travel agents.

The methods are only available on the orders of an investigating magistrate in an active case and cannot be routinely used by police to gather evidence. The special methods may also only be used, the law reads, if “other means are not sufficient to bring facts to light”.

“At present we are able to tap [landline] telephones with the approval of an investigating magistrate,” Geens told VRT News. “It’s only normal that modern communications systems be investigated in the same way, without the person concerned being aware of the fact. This is simply a question of updating the law: nothing to do with an all-seeing Big Brother.”