The FBI will be able to hack into computers anywhere in the world if changes to the US Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure are allowed to become law, as they will on December 1.
Democrat Senator Ron Wyden has drafted a one-line bill that would prevent the organisation from getting these powers through the changes to rule 41.
These changes would give judges the power to grant warrants to search and seize electronic media outside their own jurisdictions if information was "concealed through technological means", according to the Tor Project.
This would include the use of Tor.
{loadposition sam08}A Tor Project blog post said the broad warrants obtainable under the changed rules would apply to people using Tor in any country.
"The FBI will be permitted to hack into a person’s computer or phone remotely and to search through and remove their data. The FBI will be able to introduce malware into computers. It will create vulnerabilities that will leave users exposed," the post said.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an American non-profit that fights for digital rights, said in an analysis: "Make no mistake: the Rule 41 proposal implicates people well beyond US borders. This update expands the jurisdiction of judges to cover any computer user in the world who is using technology to protect their location privacy or is unwittingly part of a botnet."
It said people both inside and outside the US should be equally concerned about the proposed changes.
"The change to Rule 41 isn’t merely a procedural update. It significantly expands the hacking capabilities of the United States government without any discussion or public debate by elected officials.
"If members of the intelligence community believe these tools are necessary to advancing their investigations, then this is not the path forward. Only elected members of Congress should be writing laws, and they should be doing so in a matter that considers the privacy, security, and civil liberties of people impacted," the EFF said.