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EPIC- The Electronic Privacy Information Center has aggressively sought out information about Carnivore via the Freedom of Information Act. Click here to see their extensive Carnivore focus area. The following was written before much of EPIC's material was made available. Most of the conjecture and assumptions below have been borne out by the documentation released by the FBI to EPIC: The FBI has been reluctant to disclose many details about the Carnivore/DCS1000 spy tool which has been in use since early 2000, but what is known is this:
What Carnivore/DCS1000 Could Do: That's what Carnivore/DCS1000 can do when installed at a single ISP. But what happens if Carnivore/DCS1000 goes unchecked, and gets installed at most or all ISPs? All that would take is for the FBI to justify one Carnivore-based investigation at each ISP. This could happen within a year or two if left unchecked. Let's look at what it could mean if Carnivore/DCS1000, and the FBI, were installed at all ISPs in the US: The biggest threat would be the FBI's new ability to mandate Internet law. One of the great powers of the Internet is the fact that it exists beyond the control of any one person or agency. Almost all efforts to introduce Internet legislation has either been defeated or postponed, usually because enforcement is found to be impractical. Also, any activity that the U.S. might try to prohibit can still be conducted in another country with different laws, and, through the Internet, can still be accessed by Americans. The Communications Decency Act (basically a censorship law) provoked such a massive e-protest that it was largely abandoned. Internet gambling, online auctions, and music sharing have all largely avoided regulation, because lawmakers know that if you ban it in one place on the 'Net, it will just show up somewhere else. Carnivore/DCS1000 could change all that. With Carnivore/DCS1000 installed at all U.S. ISPs, the FBI could (for example):
Many people would like to believe the best about our Government, and assume that they wouldn't do such a thing. But most of the efforts by the U.S. Government to control the Internet have failed, not because they didn't want to make the law, but because the nature of the Internet (free and fluid) wouldn't allow it. Carnivore/DCS1000 will change that, if we don't take action now. The United States is home to the vast majority of Internet traffic. AOL alone has over 50 million users, and the number of e-mail accounts in the U.S. has been reported as over 300 million. Most of this country's residents use the Internet is some way, and moreso as time goes on. What's more, communications technology is converging in such a way that traditional technologies, like phone, radio, cable TV, satellite, and wireless, are all becoming part of the Internet. More and more of our communications are sent over the Internet every single day, and the day will come when the Internet will be the transmission tool for virtually all communications (aside from "live," in-person talking). The U.S. is positioned to be the major provider of these services, for its own people, and the rest of the world. A few years down the road, when your phone company, your cable TV provider, radio stations, and cell phone company are all part of your "ISP", and Carnivore/DCS1000 is installed there, the FBI will have exclusive control of what you can and can't watch, say, or do while using these technologies. And if you happen to say, or read, or watch something that raises their suspicion (like, say, shopping for hemp clothing, or saying you hate something, or advocating drug legalization), you could very well find yourself being served with a search warrant, by people very much like the ones that seized Elian Gonzales from his Miami relatives. If that's not something you want to look forward to, then take action now, and let's get together and Stop Carnivore! |
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