FBI's killer carnivore, is anyone worried?

[KillerMuffin]

AARGGHGH J EDGAR IS READING MY EMAIL!!!!!!

Heres the link:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/492929.asp

Just a taste of it:

Carnivore is specialized software created by the FBI, and typically installed at an Internet provider, to record online traffic such as e-mail sent or received by a terrorist or criminal suspect. Although the FBI maintains that no innocent communications are recorded, civil-rights groups have complained that Carnivore effectively scans all passing data to find relevant messages and that it is ripe for abuse in part because of the secrecy surrounding exactly how it operates. But Mr. Perritt cautioned, “This thing can’t come close to sucking up all the communications of an [Internet provider] of any size.”


Thoughts? Discussion? Wacked out government conspiracist theories? Sparkyisms?

 

[Ambrosious]

Let them look at my shit, the most interesting thing they'll find is that I visit the boards here and that I have some boring e-mail communications. It really doesn't bother me at all. Now if I was a terrorist, I'd be worried.

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

Every spook organization.....

has such software.

Too bad, (or lucky for some) - they don't utilize shareware.
If they did maybe things like recent terroist attack on our Navy would have been overted.

 

[Expertise]

Big ears for a wired world.

You all realize that this accompanied by the NSA's system, the name of which eludes me at the moment, explains BobToads abduction.

The NSA (or is it the NRO) has an even broader and more powerful version which scans almost all electronic communication. Cell phones, land lines, short wave, e-mail, sat. trans. You name it. The walls do indeed have ears.

Seriously. It is NO conspiracy theory.

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

That would be.....

No Such Agency - or better known as the National Security Agency.

Competitors of Christian's In Action or the CIA.

 

[Silverlily]

I have a feeling that sort of thing has been going on for a while, it's too tempting for the FBI to pass on.

I just hope they've enjoyed the email I've sent and received as much as I have.

 

[Expertise]

sshhhhh

The NSA's system is called "Echelon" and it is WAY bigger and WAY badder than the FBI's.

Supposedly NSA's mandate does not cover surveillance within the US.

I am sure they don't listen to any internal traffic. Seriously. No really. Would the government lie to you. C'mon now, if you can't trust the US intelligence community who can you trust?

 

[pandora]

Here I thought I was safe with my encrypted mail programs, after all, they did come from the government. Argh, what was I thinking, I've practically invited them into my house. Now where's that uninstall button at?

 

[Closet Desire]

another way of looking at it...

Even with Carnivore and an unlimited budget (which they don't have) there is way too much information flowing...most of it porn (hah!)...for anybody to seriously think about monitoring it at random. The great thing about freedom of information is that it becomes a needle in a haystack...even for the NSA, CIA, or Pat Robertson. They do have to be looking for certain key words and tricky phrases...fortunately.

Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark? They weren't joking when they hid it in a warehouse full of "stuff". It would never turn up again. A printer once told me that if you wanted to keep something secret the worst thing you could do is put "secret" or "confidential" on it. Otherwise they just don't have time or inclination to snoop. Try encoding your communication with 128 bit security and it might raise an eyebrow or two. Hide in plain site they say.

I suppose if you want your correspondence to dissolve in with the rest of the traffic you could put sprinkle something like "free teenie porn" and "big boobed sluts" liberally in your correspondence to throw them off the trail. That's what seems to be in my mailbox everyday! (And no...I have more elegant tastes than that...that's why I'm here!)

Shhhhh...did you hear that? Are you sure this line's secure...

 

[Nogard]

Laugh, joke or say what you will, the federal government is a bigger threat to American freedom tha any foreign country is or will be. The twin cries of national security or crime fighting has turned the government into an organization that has no concept of human or personal rights

 

[Closet Desire]

That's why...

...there are fifty states with fifty different governments and a jillion different country, municipal authorities. With so many authorities, in the long run, there is none. Over the years it swings both ways. Don't forget the 55 mph blackmail that the fed smothered the states with. Finally, the states had the balls to say "piss off" and the fed had to back down.

I agree fundamentally with what you say. There are lots of governments in the US putting personal freedom and rights second to their own agendas. It seems sort of ironic that now in Europe there is great progress being made toward a human rights declaration, including the right to privacy, and that currently US businesses are starting to lose economic advantage because they do not comply with these new declarations. It will be interesting to wait and see if the almightly dollar finally wins out again.

My two pence worth...

 

[Bushido71XS]

Re: sshhhhh

The NSA's system is called "Echelon" and it is WAY bigger and WAY badder than the FBI's.

Supposedly NSA's mandate does not cover surveillance within the US.

I am sure they don't listen to any internal traffic. Seriously. No really. Would the government lie to you. C'mon now, if you can't trust the US intelligence community who can you trust?

Riight, Hey Exp, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you can have real cheap. And some real nice oceanfront property in Arizona.

 

[Prussian Overlord]

Shhhhh...did you hear that? Are you sure this line's secure...

AHHHHHHHHHH! God help us all, every conspicracy theorists nightmare:
The Matrix has you! HAHAHAHAHA....

okay so i am a little goofy tonight... :::goes back to his hole:::

PO

 

[Samuari]

Re: another way of looking at it...

Even with Carnivore and an unlimited budget (which they don't have) there is way too much information flowing...most of it porn (hah!)...for anybody to seriously think about monitoring it at random. The great thing about freedom of information is that it becomes a needle in a haystack...even for the NSA, CIA, or Pat Robertson. They do have to be looking for certain key words and tricky phrases...fortunately.

Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark? They weren't joking when they hid it in a warehouse full of "stuff". It would never turn up again. A printer once told me that if you wanted to keep something secret the worst thing you could do is put "secret" or "confidential" on it. Otherwise they just don't have time or inclination to snoop. Try encoding your communication with 128 bit security and it might raise an eyebrow or two. Hide in plain site they say.

I suppose if you want your correspondence to dissolve in with the rest of the traffic you could put sprinkle something like "free teenie porn" and "big boobed sluts" liberally in your correspondence to throw them off the trail. That's what seems to be in my mailbox everyday! (And no...I have more elegant tastes than that...that's why I'm here!)

Shhhhh...did you hear that? Are you sure this line's secure...

See Edger Allen Poe The Perloined Letter

 

[scylis]

the NSA and you

the NSA covers everything, foreign and abroad. they handle national security, wether it be Islamic Fundamentalists in Jordan or the fanatical militias found various places in the States.. *coughMONTANAcough*

no, i find none of this scary in the slightest.. sure, they can read my email, but what use do they have for the knowledge that i flooded my girlfriend's inbox with virtualflowers b/c i was too broke to get her real ones last year for her birthday? look at it this way.. would you rather have your precious "privacy" by getting rid of the big bad Spooks but let terrorists have it easy, or would you like to be safe and secure in your nice, warm, comforting houses as you watch Dr. Seus' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for the umpteenth time this year?

another thing.. the government has been monitoring your phone conversations for several decades already, so why should email and internet stuff be any different?

 

[Ezzy]

The RIP bill...

In the UK has just gone through the law making system over here.

If you insist on using an E mail encryption program such as PGP (pretty good privacy), to send encrypted E mails. The bill gives the authorities the right to ask for the keys to any encrypted E mails that you have sent.

Failure to supply the correct encryption key, will be liable to two years imprisonment for each key you don't give up.

Most of the E mail scanning software (so they say) works by looking for keywords, these are words like BOMB, MURDER Etc.

Only the stupid terrorists are going to get caught, those that have the sense to use code words will not be found.

EZ http://cgi.tripod.com/smilecwm/cgi-bin/s/cwm2/sleep.gif

 

[wolfie69]

Different day same shit

Reminds me of the Vietnam protest days when the FBI kept files on just about anyone who was involved in the movement against the war... Can we spell BIG BROTHER is here?????

 

[Closet Desire]

for Samauri...

Nice touch...why didn't I think of it? For cryin' out loud I still lecture on the story (Purloined letter). Poe was a clever, clever guy (died of rabies...very strange...very sad).