One has to ask what happened to the old scheme
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7758127.stmRemote searches of suspect computers will form part of an EU plan to tackle hi-tech crime.
The five-year action plan will take steps to combat the growth in cyber theft and the machines used to spread spam and other malicious programs.
It will also encourage better sharing of data among European police forces to track down and prosecute criminals.
Europol will co-ordinate the investigative work and also issue alerts about cyber crime sprees.
The five-year plan won the backing of the EU ministers at a meeting which also granted 300,000 euros (£250,000) to Europol to create the system to pool crime reports and issue alerts about emerging threats.
The ministerial meeting also backed the anti-cyber crime strategy that will see the creation of cross-border investigation teams and sanction the use of virtual patrols to police some areas of the net
Lets hope the focus of this scheme is to tackle online abuse/hate/scamming related activities, giving themselves a blank cheque to trawl the net illegally accessing folks machines is on the other hand something the courts will throw out and should not be used as the basis for a case, however it should be ok to use such "findings" to ask a court for a warrant based on such, to do otherwise is to invite abuse and claims of the police planting evidence.
