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Japan's police have gained the right to eavesdrop on telephone calls and fax messages and access e-mail accounts in the course of their investigations into serious crimes defined by the law as cases involving illegal drugs, weapons, organised group illegal entry into Japan, and organised murders.

The new Communications Interception Law came into effect just over a year after Japan's coalition government forced an all-night debate which resulted in wiretap legislation being passed.

The new law comes into force as similar legislation and government programs are making headlines in other nations. In the US the FBI is currently defending its Carnivore e-mail sniffing program while making sure it retains data crossing the backbone of Verio after the company is acquired by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT). In the UK a law similar to Japan's has just passed through Parliament. Called the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the law gives British authorities the ability to

eavesdrop on e-mail and other Internet communications. It also requires anyone ordered by a court to disclose encrypted information and provides measures for complaint.

ASIO watching

Australia has had similar laws enacted in recent times, with the Federal Government justifying the moves on the grounds of protecting internal security in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.

Australians now have the amended ASIO Act and the Telecommunications Interception Act, both of which greatly expand the range of powers available to the government to spy on its own citizens.

As result of the amendments to the ASIO Act, the agency is now able to use tracking devices, enter a private premises, access data in computers, and open mail carried by private ail contractors. ASIO is also permitted to access information held by the ATO and by AUSTRAC, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre. They also have dispensation to go back later on and remove any evidence of their access to keep their activities secret.

Meanwhile the US justice Department has asked for a university to act as a test bed for the Carnivore software, in an attempt to establish that the system does not threaten individual privacy. According to assistant attorney-general Stephen Colgate, who is overseeing the testing of the software, the participating university will be allowed access to the hardware, software and source code for Carnivore, because universities were "perceived to be honest and independent, and they can marshal a wealth of expertise in multiple disciplines." - PC World Magazine, October, Pg 16