‘TV program about hacks breaks the law by installing keyloggers’

According to experts, a TV program about hacking into AvroTros committed computer intrusion by installing keyloggers on unsuspecting internet users. The program makers state that they want to create awareness.

The program What the #hack?! is, according to AvroTros, a ‘prank show’ in which the host Yes-R shows with ‘hidden camera jokes what can go wrong when selfies, passwords and privacy data are exposed’. The presenter tries to get users their passwords and retrieves them with ‘special devices’. According to Nu.nl, the makers use keyloggers and that is not allowed, says ICT lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet, among others. “Deliberate entry without permission is basically a crime, just like breaking into a house.”

Participants in the program agree to the broadcasting conditions and thereby give permission afterwards by means of a quitclaim. But not everyone who was targeted agrees. “Of course there are always people who don’t sign a quit claim, not everyone wants to see themselves on television,” AvroTros reports. Those people could file a report. The makers also intercepted internet traffic from public networks to find out what internet users were up to.

The broadcaster states that it wants to create awareness among the target group of NPO 3 with the broadcasts, which will start next month. According to Engelfriet, that could be a valid reason, but only if there is no alternative to demonstrate that social issue. Bart Jacobs, professor of computer security at Radboud University, adds that the interests of individuals should not be harmed.