Espionage has gone hi-tech. Soon gone will be the days of Mata Hari, James Bond, and Jason Bourne. After all, they will be in the guise of what is known as “policeware.”

Policeware is basically a software intended for the police. It will be used to monitor interactions and discussions of its people. For how it works, think of spyware. Normally policeware present themselves as e-mail monitoring software that manipulate ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to monitor communications among its users. Sometimes policeware act as keyloggers and Trojan horses. Others can convert audio conversations to searchable text files.

This technology was first used by the United States. Germany, however, is already caught in haywire. A scandal will soon erupt once the millions of Germans knew that there was indeed policeware installed into their computer systems. The initial plan, which was leaked around the last week of August, was to use legitimate e-mail messages (such as those from licensed businesses and government agencies) so it can set up policeware in the PCs of their suspected terrorists so they can track communications and search remotely for any contents found inside the computers.

Advocates of human rights are, of course, against it; nevertheless, Germany has only the United States as a perfect example of how policeware can be used in curbing crime. For example, in 2001, FBI broke into a suspect’s home and set up a keylogging software in order to track and convert cryptic messages contained in his PC. Moreover, its software called CIPAV (Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier) was able to discover a suspect for bombing who is living in the state of Washington. The process, though, was still kept confidential. The software is also able to gather present username, the version of the operating systems, the running computer programs, and even MAC addresses. These data shall be forwarded to the FBI.

An alliance between the United States and Germany is never impossible. The former has all the technologies and procedures in place while the latter possesses the technical knowledge in order to improve the current system and allow it to function more than just collecting data or search files remotely. For anyone, this can be potentially dangerous. Yet as long as judicial power has teeth, then it will ease the tension a little bit. For example, before CIPAV could be installed into someone else’s PC, the police agency needs to obtain a warrant. It will also take a while before they can perfect the system so it can search any type of operating system.

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