Fergie's Tech Blog

FBI Turns to Broad New Wiretap Method - UPDATE

Declan McCullagh writes on C|Net News:

The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.

Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords.

Such a technique is broader and potentially more intrusive than the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system, later renamed DCS1000. It raises concerns similar to those stirred by widespread Internet monitoring that the National Security Agency is said to have done, according to documents that have surfaced in one federal lawsuit, and may stretch the bounds of what's legally permissible.

Call it the vacuum-cleaner approach.

More here.

UPDATE: 22:26 PST: Declan says that the Department of Justice has taken issue with their earlier report. See more here.

posted by Fergie @ 1/30/2007 10:22:00 AM