Queensland Police to Tap Facebook and Emails

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FEARS have been raised about police abusing new phone-tapping powers to snoop on social networking sites such as Facebook and private emails.

Leading criminal lawyer Jim Coburn accused the State Government of "fudging" the scope of the telephone intercept powers, which start this year.

"(Police) will have authority to eavesdrop on communications, be they speech, music or sounds, data, text, images or signals," Mr Coburn said.

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"Anything and everything will be part of the phone tap power laws."

A Justice Department spokesman said police had the power to access Facebook and email documents once they'd been received by the recipient. However the new powers would give police "real time access".

"Any communication passing across the telecommunications system can be lawfully intercepted under powers provided in a telecommunications intercept warrant," he said.

Mr Coburn also labelled the program's independent watchdog -- the Public Interest Monitor -- a "toothless tiger" that would be unable to reject phone tapping applications.

"Tight controls and restraints need to be imposed on these powers but looking at the legislation, there's nothing in there to stop the police from using these powers to launch fishing expeditions against citizens," he said.

The PIM has lobbied the Government for more resources to cope with an expected glut of applications once phone-tapping powers are in place.

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O'Gorman dismissed concerns about the PIM, saying the final decision on phone taps would rest with a Supreme Court judge.

"If (Mr Coburn) is saying that the PIM accepts or rejects phone-tap applications, that is wrong," Mr O'Gorman said.

Premier Anna Bligh held off introducing the powers, which will be based on a federal model adopted in all other states, until the PIM oversight was included.

Mr Coburn, who works for Ryan and Bosscher Lawyers, also predicted lengthy court battles when police attempted to use evidence gained by phone taps in court.

"The police say having these powers will make it easier to catch criminals but phone tap recording and intercepted emails and texts can be manipulated so any such evidence is going to be challenged in court," he said.