I am generally in favour of properly-authorised, individualised, non-scalable and non-generalised, warranted “Equipment Interference”. I believe that the effort and cost of hacking an individual’s device(s) is an act proportionate to the tests of lawfulness, accountability and necessity, akin to executing a search warrant upon someone’s home.

It’s reassuring that someone in the Lords appears to agree, although I hope they also are in favour of giving everyone the privacy from their platform providers, and/or other intermediaries, by means of end-to-end encryption, just as one would not expect to have to register one’s housekeys with the local police “in case a search is necessary”.

The decision-maker should also demonstrate that they are not using this legislation to bypass other, more appropriate, legal routes to achieving their objectives. They should not be able to authorise criminal conduct where a legal route exists. For example, the legislation must not create loopholes and back doors for the authorities to conduct black ops. They must not be able to recruit a burglar where they should have used a search warrant, or a hacker where they should have obtained a RIPA authorisation. It is not sufficient for such critical issues to be left to the code of practice. It must go in the Bill. I really hope that the Government listen to the noble Lords who understand these processes and accept that we are all human and make mistakes.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2020-12-01b.655.1#g658.0