FBI conducting multi-year internet porn study

ZDNet: "The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed."

"Such a technique is broader and potentially more intrusive than the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system, later renamed DCS1000. It raises concerns similar to those stirred by widespread Internet monitoring that the National Security Agency is said to have done, according to documents that have surfaced in one federal lawsuit, and may stretch the bounds of what's legally permissible." On Monday, a Justice Department representative would not immediately answer questions about this kind of surveillance technique.

"What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."



Only a matter of time before the needle-stack makers legislate full data retention at ISPs.. First for the 'war on terr-r', then 'for the children', and later .. well, it will be too late to matter because they won't care what you think. ISP costs go up due to massive storage requirements, innocent Americans will have ALL internet surfing, communications, etc. stored for later perusal by law enforcement, divorce lawyers, the RIAA/MPAA or anyone else who can hack a massively distributed database.

Meanwhile, terrorists and others are unaffected as the needlestack gets larger. But it's not really about that. It's about control. And in the end, the government has the shiny new law enforcement tool they wanted. We're sure it will be useful, but at what cost to the rest of us? And what happens to checks, balances, the fourth amendment, etc. If anything will spur consumer adoption of encryption and Tor-like objects, this will be it.

Stay tuned.