FBI Releases Documents On Carnivore

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday released
565 pages of information related to its e-mail surveillance system
also known as "Carnivore."

The release of documents came in reply to a Freedom of Information
Act request issued by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC),
which in mid-August convinced the DC court to expedite the request
for response within 45 days.

According to documents posted on EPIC's Web site, the Carnivore
program began under the name "Omnivore" in February 1997,
originally run on a Solaris X86 computer. That system was replaced
two years later by Carnivore, which uses a Windows NT-based
computer that attaches to an Internet service provider's (ISP)
network to sift through incoming and outgoing traffic.

EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg called the disclosure
"insufficient," noting that of the documents released, almost 200
pages were withheld in full and another 400 pages were redacted,
many completely except for the page numbers. The coveted
blueprint or "source code" for the FBI's device was also withheld.

"We intend to pursue the litigation until the relevant documents
are disclosed," Rotenberg said. "The use of investigative methods
that monitor Internet traffic and capture the private communications
of innocent users raise enormously important privacy issues that
must be subject to public review and public approval."

Pursuant to the court order, the FBI must release documents
on Carnivore at regular 45-day intervals. In previous arguments before
the court, EPIC said it had identified as many as 3,000 documents related
to the FBI's e-mail snooping device that it would like to obtain through
its FOIA request.

Assuming Monday's release is any indication of the number of
documents the FBI will release at each interval, the FBI will have
released all the documents requested within the next nine months.

The FBI has assured consumers and privacy groups that its
e-mail surveillance system only traps messages that are specified
under a court order. But pressure from privacy groups caused the
Justice Department to agree to create an "independent" commission
to review Carnivore's potential for abuse.

Last week, the FBI announced that it had selected the Illinois Institute
of Technology Research Institute (IITRI) to staff a review panel to
allay public concerns over Carnivore. A number of universities that
had considered applying for the contracted balked at the chance,
citing the secrecy requirements that were a condition of submitting
a bid.

Several lawmakers, already concerned about the threat posed
by businesses to consumer privacy, took the issue to heart and
have proposed measures to halt the use of systems like Carnivore
by law enforcement.

H.R. 4987, sponsored by Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., a member of the
Judiciary Committee, at its heart updates wiretapping laws to
reduce the government's ability to listen in on wireless, e-mail
and Internet communications.

H.R. 5018, sponsored by Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., who chairs the
House Judiciary's Constitution Subcommittee, seeks to accomplish
much the same thing as Barr's bill. H.R. 5018, co-sponsored by
Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., also would count electronic
communication as being inadmissible in court if it were obtained
illegally, and in addition requires the government to submit annual
reports on their requests to tap "stored electronic communications."
The House Judiciary Committee approved the legislation last week
in a vote of 20-1.

EPIC can be found online at http://www.epic.org