On December 1, 2016, an amendment to Rule 41 of the United States Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which regulates legal search and seizure, came into force. The amended Rule 41, which now allows for remote-access searches, reads:
A magistrate judge with authority in any district where activities related to a crime may have occurred has authority to issue a warrant to use remote access to search electronic storage media and to seize or copy electronically stored information located within or outside that district if: (A) the district where the media or information is located has been concealed through technological means; or (B) in an investigation of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5), the media are protected computers that have been damaged without authorization and are located in five or more districts.
The new amendment allows for judges to issue warrants for searches taking place outside of their district.
Law enforcement officials argue that this amendment was a necessary alteration of the previous Rule 41 to fit it within the digital age. However, some privacy advocates are concerned that new Rule 41 may provide a larger than intended scope, which could result in the seizure of data related to third party data subjects who are not the intended targets of an issued warrant.
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