Clive Feather wrote:
Calling this "NCIS carnivore" is misleading. It's concerned with
transaction logs (who logged in when, web site logs, the sort of thing
covered as "communications data" in RIP). Nothing to do with the contents
of phone calls or email.
I've been aware of these proposals for some time.
The connection to Carnivore was made by the anonymous source
of the document, probably a person within one of the CSPs which
had been given the document for consultation -- as it sets forth. A
person who likely has access to other yet undisclosed consultations,
as Clive suggests is a fact of life for providers.
In the US we have learned that the capabilities of Carnivore are more
than has been publicly admitted, that it is only one in a series of
developing surveillance technologies, one of a series of legislative
initiatives, one of a series of trial balloons lofted for public reaction.
The major ISPs in the US are being consulted on these rapidly
developing means and methods, as were the telcos in days past
and telecomms in the present. And it has been established that these
corporations have been presented with, and themselves initiated,
surveillance and interception programs, as ever, in the national
interest -- which means in the interest of favorable regulation
and economic advantage, now global not merely national.
"Carnivore" is an apt term for the process of ravenous cooperation
between telecommunications providers and their regulators in all
the countries where that is occurring -- the list of admitted participants
is growing daily. And the FBI and DoJ make no secret of their drive
to have seamless global cooperation, helped as ever by US legal and
technological prowess and lubricated by financial incentives.
What is striking is how often HMG is willing to serve as stalking
horse for draconian surveillance programs that later get adopted in
some form by other countries. What the dark side of HMG is being
promised for that contemptible role is worth sunshining by whoever
gets hands on evidence.
