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The Latest News about the FBI's Carnivore

As US Congressman (R-Ga) and House Judiciary Committee member Bob Barr has pointed out, the latest US government surveillance project, the FBI's Carnivore, might have been largely overlooked by the public were it not for two factors: the choice on the part of the bureau to name the system "Carnivore" and EarthLink Inc.'s litigation over the placement of the packet-sniffer on its network. Be that as it may, this email surveillance system has been at the center of controversy of late. While the FBI has explained that the system uses court-authorized wire taps to surveil criminal suspects, civil liberties groups are concerned that Carnivore may violate the Fourth Amendment Protection against illegal search and seizure. On July 12, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and six days later it asked the Justice Department to expedite the request as Carnivore had become such a focus of media concern. When the request was not granted after the ten-day time limit FOIA required, EPIC filed a civil action, and on August 2, US District Judge James Robertson ordered the FBI to respond to EPIC's request within ten days with a schedule of record releases. This Wednesday, the FBI announced that it would release the first set of documents within 45 days. In the meantime, the development of Carnivore moves ahead, as the Justice Department plans to select a university within days to review the system's hardware and software.
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Date of Scout Publication
August 18th, 2000
Date Of Record Creation
April 7th, 2003 at 2:08pm
Date Of Record Release
April 7th, 2003 at 2:08pm
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