Forgive me if this is a repost, but someone e-mailed me this business about Echelon and Carnivore awhile back.
Here's the link:
http://www.rense.com/general66/scgh.htm
Anyone motivated to create a (much) longer tagline?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by mistWalker
No surprise. Big business either bends over backwards or are in step with the government. I'm certain that they've been monitoring people's voice and data records since shortly after 9/11. And if not then, slightly before, not after 2004.
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It's been around a lot longer than that. From the Wired archives:
Quote:
Cyber Safe or Gov't Surveillance?
By Declan McCullagh| Also by this reporter
10:40 AM Feb, 01, 2000
WASHINGTON -- A government plan to monitor networks for intrusions goes too far and will lead to increased surveillance and privacy violations, a civil liberties group told a Senate panel on Tuesday.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center said a memo it obtained last week shows that the Clinton administration's FIDNET proposal for "information systems protection" will result in unwarranted spying on Americans.
Documents the group received through a Freedom of Information Act request indicate the administration is considering broad access to credit card and phone records of private citizens and monitoring of government workers' computers, EPIC director Marc Rotenberg told the Senate judiciary subcommittee on technology and terrorism.
"The FIDNET proposal, as currently conceived, must simply be withdrawn. It is impermissible in the United States to give a federal agency such extensive surveillance authority," Rotenberg told the panel chaired by Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican.
The privacy problems of FIDNET and similar government efforts are exaggerated, said Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office director John Tritak.
"FIDNET is intended to protect information on critical, civilian government computer systems, including that provided by private citizens. It will not monitor or be wired into private sector computers," Tritak said. "All aspects of the FIDNET will be fully consistent with all laws protecting the civil liberties and privacy rights of Americans."
Tritak showed up to discuss the so-called "National Plan for Information Systems Protection, Version 1.0," which the government released in January. It calls for additional government spending to thwart a "highly organized, systematic cyberattack by hostile powers or terrorist organizations."
The 199-page plan includes a chapter titled "protecting privacy and civil liberties." The chapter calls for an annual "public-private colloquium" and review of privacy practices by "appropriate authorities."
But it does not say the CIAO will reveal even summaries of its activities -- the sort of regular review required of federal prosecutors who ask for wiretaps of phone lines. "Nowhere does the Plan answer such questions as what formal reporting requirements will be established, what independent review will be conducted, and what mechanisms for public accountability and government oversight will be put in place," EPIC's Rotenberg said.
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