Premier Matteo Renzi has had a measure that would have allowed the authorities to "frisk" people's computers via remote surveillance scrapped from a government anti-terrorism decree, government sources said on Thursday. The executive will tackle this issue in a separate piece of legislation on wiretaps that is currently being examined by a parliament committee, the sources said. "If the measure had gone through, it would have created more problems than it seeks to solve," said Michele Meta, president of the Lower House's transport, post and communications committee and a member of Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD). "It is sometimes necessary to give up some liberties for the sake of greater security, but the sacrifice must be proportionate to the goal...spying on computers via hidden keyloggers must be limited to specific, very serious suspected crimes, otherwise there's the risk of writing the sequel to (George) Orwell's Big Brother," Meta said.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano had said earlier the new anti-terror law will "increase our capacity to intercept communication flows, but only with regards to terrorist crimes".
"We need to strike a balance between security and privacy," he said.
Also on Thursday, the joint defence and justice committees amended the government's decree to shorten the time period in which phone and Internet operators are required to store backups of client traffic.
This was on the urging of the national privacy authority, which also praised Renzi's move to remove the remote computer frisking option.
"This will prevent an excessive and probably not very useful extension of invasive investigative tools," the authority said in a note.
The debate comes as anti-terror police on Thursday announced they are investigating another piece of Italian-language Islamic State (ISIS) propaganda that has been circulating on the Web. Titled 'A Valid Caliphate or Not?' it is signed "Your brother in Allah, Mehdi". Police say this is the same signature that appeared on another Italian-language Internet document titled 'Islamic State, a Truth That Wants to Communicate With You'. Investigators say both documents may have been authored by Madhi el-Halili, a 20-year-old Italian of Moroccan descent who was arrested Wednesday along with two others on charges of promoting association to a group with intent to commit acts of international terrorism. The suspect tried to hide his laptop when he was arrested, police said.
Alfano, meanwhile, pledged to "speedily" reintroduce the measure as part of a wiretapping decree. European Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks hailed the premier's move. "Good on @matteorenzi for blocking intrusive anti-terror measures," he tweeted. "We must guarantee that security measures respect human rights".
The final vote on the decree is slated to be held on Tuesday.
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