The Dutch government has unveiled a new Bill that would empower its investigators to hack into PCs and servers, install spyware, read people's email and even destroy files - all in the name of fighting cybercrime.
The proposed law, published on Thursday and signed by Ivo Opstelten, the Dutch minister for security and justice, would also allow investigators to target computers and servers outside of The Netherlands. Investigators, though, would have to seek judicial approval first.
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The proposals have been slammed as unnecessary and dangerous by critics, though, and for setting a precedent that justifies such intrusions - at home and abroad - by governments in repressive parts of the world.
In the same vein as the US, Opstelten has argued that encryption is becoming an increasing problem for police if they want to tap and read people's email. Gmail, Twitter and other online services have increasingly switched to encryption in order to improve people's online security, while services such as Skype and WhatsApp can easily be encrypted.
However, law enforcement authorities across the world have argued that this is hampering them in their investigations.
"It is important that the government wants to combat cybercrime but this proposal is rushed: it is unnecessary and creates new security risks for citizens," Simone Halink of Dutch "digital rights" organisation Bits of Freedom told the BBC.
She added that the problem was a lack of manpower and know-how, not a lack of investigatory powers.
Predictably, the bill claims to target child pornography and terrorism, but would also make it illegal to publish "stolen data" - potentially putting at risk the highlighting of security flaws in proprietary code or whistleblowers publishing incriminating information.
Opstelten also wants to use the proposed legislation to target denial of service attacks.
The Dutch bill would also make it a criminal offence for a suspect to refuse to decipher encrypted files during a police investigation - similar to UK legislation, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), passed in 2000.
The authority of RIPA has expanded by stealth, though, whereby HMRC and even local councils are routinely using it. In a 2008 report, it was observed that: "A quarter of the trading standards, environmental control officers, housing benefit departments and fire services have used the rights granted under the Act to identify suspect rogue traders, fly tippers and fraudsters."
