In today's electronic age, an invasion of privacy is only a point and click away. This fact has become increasingly clear in recent months as Congress has begun to ask questions about a new online wiretapping system that the FBI calls "Carnivore." The system forces Internet service providers to attach a black box to their networks - essentially a powerful computer running specialized software - through which all of their subscribers' communications flow.
In traditional wiretaps, the government is required to minimize its interception of non-incriminating - or innocent - communications. But Carnivore does just the opposite by scanning through tens of millions of emails and other communications from innocent Internet users as well as the targeted suspect.
It is as though the FBI suddenly believes it has the right and legal authority to send agents into the Post Office to rip open each and every mailbag and search for one person's letters. To use another analogy, Carnivore is like the telephone company being forced to give the FBI access to all the calls on its network when it only has permission to seek the calls for one subscriber.
Dozens of politicians from across the political spectrum have called on the Department of Justice to suspend the use of Carnivore until Congress can determine its legality. Take action now to reinforce that message with your Members of Congress.
Put a Leash On Carnivore!
Carnivore is unnecessary.
Internet service providers can and have already been providing law enforcement agencies with the information for which they have a court order. There is no need for the dragnet that Carnivore represents when ISPs have already been zeroing in on legitimate targets.
The Fourth Amendment is built on the premise that law enforcement cannot be trusted with unsupervised authority when it conducts a search.
To accept the FBI's arguments in favor of Carnivore is to reject that core premise of the Fourth Amendment by giving the FBI carte blanche access to the communications of innocent people.
Carnivore comes at a time of record wiretapping by federal law enforcement.
In 1999, federal law enforcement conducted more wiretaps in one year than had ever been conducted before. And search warrants for online information from America Online subscribers doubled from 1998 to 1999. This is a time when Congress should be carefully examining the expansion of wiretapping in this country, not authorizing a new potential mass invasion of the privacy of law-abiding Americans.
TAKE ACTION!