SCN: Carnivore Invaded Privacy (fwd)

[Doug Schuler]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 22:03:49 -0700
From: steve zeltzer <lvpsf at igc.org>
To: Labortech <lvpsf at igc.org>
Subject: Carnivore Invaded Privacy


http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/29/national/29EMAI.html


May 29, 2002

Bin Laden Inquiry Was Hindered by F.B.I. E-Mail Tapping

By JOHN SCHWARTZ

      In F.B.I. investigation two years ago that was apparently linked
to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was hampered by
      problems with the bureau's e-mail wiretap system.

The system, Carnivore, which was supposed to pick up e-mail from targets
of counterterrorism investigations, "also picked up the
e-mails of noncovered" individuals, according to an internal bureau
e-mail message dated April 5, 2000, that was made public
yesterday. 

"The F.B.I. technical person was apparently so upset that he destroyed
all the e-mail," apparently including mail related to the
investigation, said the memorandum, addressed to M. E. Bowman, associate
general counsel for national security affairs.

Bureau documents written the next week said Carnivore had a tendency to
cause "improper capture of data" that "not only can violate
a citizen's privacy, but also can seriously `contaminate' ongoing
investigations" through unlawful interceptions.

Yesterday, a bureau official disputed the account in the memorandum. He
said no information had been lost, because the e-mail had
been recovered. The system gathered too much information, the official
said, not because it was flawed or experimental, but because
the Internet service provider gave agents outdated settings for the
tapped computers.

"The technology assistance provided by the I.S.P. is vital to proper
configuration," the official said.

Although the bureau would not comment directly about the target of the
tap, the memorandum said the tap was conducted in Denver
under counterterrorism laws for the "UBL Unit," presumably concerned
with investigating Osama bin Laden, who is often referred to
in government documents as Usama.

The documents were made public under a Freedom of Information Act
request from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an
advocacy and policy group in Washington.

The bureau developed Carnivore to give it some of the power that it has
historically had with telephones. The system can tap the
communications stream of an Internet service provider to retrieve e-mail
to and from the target of an investigation. The system can also
retrieve just the e-mail addresses of senders and recipients of the
target's e-mail, a method similar to technologies long used by
investigators to capture phone numbers dialed by suspects and people who
call them. 

The system, announced to the public in 2000, has been criticized by
civil liberties advocates. They have said that it might collect more
information than law enforcement is entitled to collect and that it
samples the communications of many people not under investigation
to capture a suspect's communications.

Bureau officials have argued that Carnivore is carefully created and
specific. The Web site for the agency says Carnivore "provides
the F.B.I. with a `surgical' ability to intercept and collect the
communications which are the subject of the lawful order while ignoring
those communications which they are not authorized to intercept."

Bureau engineers named the system Carnivore to signify that it found the
meat of an investigation. The bureau has renamed the
system DCS-1000, but it is still popularly known as Carnivore.

In this case, however, it apparently went too far.

"This contradicts everything they've said" about Carnivore for nearly
two years, said David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic
Privacy Information Center. "Carnivore is a powerful but clumsy tool
that endangers the privacy of innocent American citizens. We
have now learned that its imprecision can also jeopardize important
investigations, including those involving terrorism."

 

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