The FBI's Carnivore System

Paper Summary:

There is a new technology of criminal activity which involves the use electronic means of communication in committing crimes. This paper looks in greater depth at some of these issues by examining the FBI Carnivore system, how it was developed, what its capacities are, and the problems civil libertarians and others see.

From the paper:

"It has a ferocious name. And its bark is in fact probably just about as bad as its bite. And while it certainly has the power to do good, the inherent costs may make it not worthwhile.
The FBI?s Carnivore system is a tool used by this law enforcement agency to snare criminals who use electronic means of communication in committing their crimes, allowing this federal agency to collect and examine email and other electronic traffic sent and received by those suspected or accused of crimes ? along, of course, with the rest of us. While the crime-fighting capacities of such a capability can be seen to be substantial, it should also be clear that such a system has the ability (if improperly used) to cause substantial harm to the rights of the innocent because most people do not realize that their electronic correspondence can be seized and examined. An essential bedrock of the American legal system (and indeed of American culture) rests on the English common-law assumption that people have a basic right to privacy and that unless they should assume or know otherwise that they have a presumption of that privacy. Thus a person shouting on a public street has no reasonable expectation of privacy. A person sitting at her computer sending email to her mother does."

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