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Carnivore No More
wikinerd writes "FBI has retired the controversial Carnivore software, strongly criticized by privacy advocates for its email capturing abilities. However, it is believed that unspecified commercial surveillance tools are employed now. What does that mean for Internet users' privacy?"
Check this little image from the article. "Carnivore's official logo shows bload-soaked incisors closing over a stream of data". EVIL!
It's a packet sniffer that reconstructs data (mail and web sites, as it seems from the article), not a boogieman! I agree, it can be a dangerous tool for privacy in the wrong hands, but still, it's not like you can just put it in your PC and start reading your neighour's mail.
Hmmmm. MS gets into the anti-spyware business, and the FBI suddenly decides it doesn't need its custom spyware anymore...
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Exactly, I work for an ISP, we are still installing these things for the FBI. I don't know much about the new version of Carnivore but I can tell you they have some bugs to be worked out still. (eg. they are not entirely passive, and the IP space needs to be added into them.) This makes network changes a PITA because I don't have access to configure new IP blocks into the new Carnivore platform. If they are going to make us install these things they should at least make them work seamlessly :P
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.