Belgium's government has called for a bevy of intrusive surveillance powers. New capabilities included in the bill, which has been sent to Belgian parliament, include requiring Internet companies to cooperate with law enforcement agencies during their investigations; giving investigators the power to break into systems and access data, including by paying hackers to do so; and allowing undercover agents to break the law online.

According to a report in the Belgian newspaper L'Echo, the new bill requires communications service providers to help the authorities with their investigation, and specifically mentions WhatsApp and Viber as services that will be required to comply. That would seem to raise the problem of end-to-end encryption that other countries are grappling with, including the UK, but it is not clear what the Belgian government hopes to do here.

The new law builds on a recent Belgian case where the country's supreme court ordered Yahoo to hand over IP addresses for e-mail accounts in connection with an Internet fraud case. Yahoo had refused on the basis that it was a US company and therefore not obliged to comply with Belgian law. The proposed measure specifies punishment of up to five years of imprisonment for refusing to help the authorities by providing the requested information.

As in the UK with the new Investigatory Powers Bill, the new bill would allow Belgian police to employ any relevant technical means to break into computer systems, including the use of a suspect's fingerprint, phishing, and spy programs. One unusual aspect is that the authorities will be permitted to access all unencrypted data found on a system without seeking permission from a judge, while anything encrypted requires additional authorisation.

The law placed before the Belgian parliament also introduces new powers for the authorities to go beyond targeted actions, to engage in everyday online interactions with suspects and the general public in order to monitor Internet activity. Moreover, this power will be widely available, and not limited to special investigators.

Agents working undercover will be explicitly allowed to break the law when it is necessary to preserve their fake identity. For example, when taking part in online conversations, agents will be allowed to post messages in radical or racist forums apparently threatening to carry out attacks. However, this indemnity is circumscribed: in cases of abuse or unjustifiable practices, undercover agents can be prosecuted retrospectively, which will probably make them think twice before getting too carried away.

One other slightly unusual proposal concerns the use of voiceprints. The new law foresees the creation of a database of voiceprints obtained through the interception of communications. However, the database can only be used to provide clues for investigators, and cannot be used as evidence in legal proceedings.

The text has only just begun its journey through the Belgian parliament, and an editorial in L'Echo points out that politicians there may well try to add extra safeguards to protect personal privacy, given the highly intrusive nature of the new powers.

However, following the terrorism in Belgium and France earlier this year, it seems likely that Belgium's Snoopers' Charter will eventually be passed, albeit with modifications. As such, it forms part of a wider move by governments across Europe and beyond to give investigators almost unlimited online surveillance capabilities.