A federal judge for the Eastern District of Virginia has ruled that the user of any computer that connects to the Internet should not have an expectation of privacy because computer security is ineffectual at stopping hackers.
"Hacking is much more prevalent now than it was even nine years ago, and the rise of computer hacking via the Internet has changed the public's reasonable expectations of privacy," the judge wrote. "Now, it seems unreasonable to think that a computer connected to the Web is immune from invasion. Indeed, the opposite holds true: In today's digital world, it appears to be a virtual certainty that computers accessing the Internet can—and eventually will—be hacked."
The judge argued that the FBI did not even need the original warrant to use the NIT [Network Investigative technique/Toolkit] against visitors to PlayPen, a hidden service on the Tor network that acted as a hub for child exploitation.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Saturday July 02 2016, @08:32PM
Having to "hack" the destination computer means it's not just looking in. It is more like carefully bumping the lock, or cutting out the window so the owner can't readily tell you opened the door/window to see something you couldn't without doing it.
"looking through a window" would be analogous to what your browser sends without hacking or even if you have file sharing turned on, and your computer is directly attached to the internet and the fbi could log onto your computer WITHOUT needing a user name/password.