twotoke
11-13-2005, 07:26 PM
hey heres a heads up,
WASHINGTON -- An FBI surveillance system called Carnivore is alarming
privacy advocates and some members of Congress.
Agents typically install the specialized computer on the networks of
Internet providers, where it intercepts all communications and records
sent to or from the target of an investigation, the Wall Street
Journal reported on Tuesday.
An FBI spokesman told the paper that the agency typically has about 20
Carnivore computers on hand to use when conducting Internet monitoring
in compliance with court orders.
But some critics say the practice of intercepting the network traffic
of all users, even for a brief period of time, could run afoul of
federal privacy laws and even the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on
unreasonable searches and seizure.
"It's the electronic equivalent of listening to everybody's phone
calls to see if it's the phone call you should be monitoring. You
develop a tremendous amount of information," Mark Rasch, a former
federal prosecutor, told the Journal.
Representative Bob Barr (R-Ga.), a conservative privacy advocate,
said, "If there's one word I would use to describe this, it would be
'frightening.'"
Not all Internet service providers seem to like the idea of a
government computer silently recording their network traffic,
especially since Carnivore systems are typically kept in locked boxes,
and at least one company is challenging the practice in court.
The FBI reportedly dubbed the system "Carnivore" because it has the
ability to get at the "meat" of interesting or suspicious
communications.
The FBI says such automated monitoring is necessary to perform
surveillance on packet-switched networks, and successfully persuaded
Congress in 1994 to require telephone companies to make their digital
networks readily snoopable. The bulk of legal wiretaps are used to
investigate drug-related crimes, according to annual statistics
published by the U.S. federal court system.
FBI Director Louis Freeh has in the past pressed for limits on what
encryption technology Americans may use, and the FBI last year
unsuccessfully asked the Internet Engineering Task Force to build
support for wiretaps into network protocols.
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
WASHINGTON -- An FBI surveillance system called Carnivore is alarming
privacy advocates and some members of Congress.
Agents typically install the specialized computer on the networks of
Internet providers, where it intercepts all communications and records
sent to or from the target of an investigation, the Wall Street
Journal reported on Tuesday.
An FBI spokesman told the paper that the agency typically has about 20
Carnivore computers on hand to use when conducting Internet monitoring
in compliance with court orders.
But some critics say the practice of intercepting the network traffic
of all users, even for a brief period of time, could run afoul of
federal privacy laws and even the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on
unreasonable searches and seizure.
"It's the electronic equivalent of listening to everybody's phone
calls to see if it's the phone call you should be monitoring. You
develop a tremendous amount of information," Mark Rasch, a former
federal prosecutor, told the Journal.
Representative Bob Barr (R-Ga.), a conservative privacy advocate,
said, "If there's one word I would use to describe this, it would be
'frightening.'"
Not all Internet service providers seem to like the idea of a
government computer silently recording their network traffic,
especially since Carnivore systems are typically kept in locked boxes,
and at least one company is challenging the practice in court.
The FBI reportedly dubbed the system "Carnivore" because it has the
ability to get at the "meat" of interesting or suspicious
communications.
The FBI says such automated monitoring is necessary to perform
surveillance on packet-switched networks, and successfully persuaded
Congress in 1994 to require telephone companies to make their digital
networks readily snoopable. The bulk of legal wiretaps are used to
investigate drug-related crimes, according to annual statistics
published by the U.S. federal court system.
FBI Director Louis Freeh has in the past pressed for limits on what
encryption technology Americans may use, and the FBI last year
unsuccessfully asked the Internet Engineering Task Force to build
support for wiretaps into network protocols.
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: