The EFF brings news of an innocuous-sounding — yet Orwellian — Rule 41. The proposal has two main segments; from the article:
The first part of this change would grant authority to practically any judge to issue a search warrant to remotely access, seize, or copy data relevant to a crime when a computer was using privacy-protective tools to safeguard one's location.
The second part...would grant authorization to a judge to issue a search warrant for...infiltrating computers that may be part of a botnet. This means victims of malware could find themselves doubly infiltrated: their computers infected with malware and used to contribute to a botnet, and then government agents given free rein to remotely access their computers as part of the investigation.
This means that any judge in the US — perhaps one with a history of granting warrants without much consideration of evidence — can issue a search warrant for any computer in the world, regardless of jurisdiction. Combine that with the language of the second segment, and this is effectively a rubber-stamp to intrude every connected device on the planet with a single warrant.
Congress has until December 1 of this year to block these changes to Rule 41. See EFF’s write up for an in-depth on the the legal ramifications.