Lawyers are concerned a police tactic to take over the online identities of suspects and defendants is being used to target the vulnerable.
Defence lawyers alerted RNZ to a form the police are using, titled 'Consent to Assume Online Internet Identity'.
It asks people to sign away their social media and email passwords, allowing officers to pretend to be the person on their accounts and gather information.
Criminal Bar Association president Fiona Guy Kidd spoke to Guyon Espiner.
