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October 2000 Newsletter:
Carnivore

Carnivore, as defined by the FBI and the DOJ, is a vehicle that "isolates, intercepts, and collects" information that "passes through an ISP".

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized."

Carnivore, implemented by the government through the infamous "black box", takes control of a portion of the network of the ISP, monitors communications on an ISP network, records messages sent and received by targeted users and all the communications that this network segment is attached to, including unrelated email addresses.

Now (and for the past two years since Carnivore has been in use) ISPs are forbidden to contact any email address to inform them that their email is being monitored, has been monitored, or is no longer being monitored.

The authorization standard now used to implement Carnivore is "relevant" as deemed by an "agent" of the government. Pro-Rights groups want the standard raised to "probable cause" (as with telephone wiretaps) as deemed by a "judge" for online trap and track orders.

To protect individual privacy, Pro-Rights groups want to turn control over from the federal government to ISPs as is the case with telephone wiretaps where the telephone company collects the information required by the court order and then delivers the information specified in the court order. The ISP would implement Carnivore then isolate and deliver the information required in the surveillance/court order. To do this, the ISP needs the source code and the right to modify the source code. In response, Attorney General Reno requested an independent study to be completed by Dec 8, 2000. The Dept of Justice stipulated that only issues approved by the government are open for examination, the source code excluded. Some groups question the validity of the eventual findings resulting from these limitations. Some leading experts politely declined to review Carnivore.

New pro-privacy legislation (HR5018) has been proposed and passed by the House. The Senate passed this bill (S2448) without the personal security enhancements.

Safety and security are the basic concerns of every person and government. Balancing individual privacy with enforcement of the existing and future internet laws is quite a challenge to any society. 

While our elected officials and Pro-Rights groups are trying to find a suitable compromise to balance law enforcement of criminal activities with our individual rights as defined in the Fourth Amendment, remember the basic rules of internet safety that considerably reduce your chances of an online problem.