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Earthlink said "no" to Carnivore, FBI search

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 11:03:10 -0700 Send reply to: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM> From: Xeni Jardin <xeni@XENI.NET> Subject: Earthlink said "no" to Carnivore, FBI search [was: bin Laden sold short?] To: CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/terrorism/financial/0919earthlink.htm l Earthlink was willing to help but wouldn't let FBI search its data

By KATHY BRISTER Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Less than 24 hours after last week's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, FBI agents visited executives in EarthLink's Atlanta headquarters.

The agents, subpoenas in hand, wanted EarthLink personnel to install the FBI's controversial tracking software -- called Carnivore -- on the networks the company uses to connect customers to the Internet. The agents were looking for electronic clues, trying to retrace suspected terrorists' steps in cyberspace.

EarthLink, which last year battled the FBI in court to keep the "sniffing" software off its systems, said no. Instead, the Atlanta-based Internet service provider used its own technology to pull records the FBI wanted.

"What Carnivore does is it sits on a server and captures all communications and then allegedly throws away what's not needed," said Mike McQuary, EarthLink president.

"What we do is much more surgical," he said. "We extract just the information that's required by a court order."

The tug-of-war on following the law and safeguarding subscribers' personal information isn't new for EarthLink executives. But in the past few days -- as federal officials have called for broader laws covering phone taps and other surveillance methods -- the rules seem to be changing, McQuary said.

"We're wondering: Will there be a lot more latitude given to law enforcement? Are the boundaries of wire tapping and search-and-seizure going to be expanded?

"People have an expectation of privacy when they're using the Internet on their own computers," he said. "We don't tolerate illegal activities on our networks, and we cooperate with law enforcement, but there's a balance that needs to be drawn in all of this."

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on whether the bureau planned to ask more ISPs to install Carnivore, which the FBI recently renamed DCS1000. The software can track a variety of online movements: Which Web sites a person visits, what e-mail he sends and to whom, which audio and video segments he downloads and -- if he maintains one -- who visits his Web site. Although the FBI targets certain Internet users, it can capture communications between people who have nothing to do with an investigation.

Generally, only smaller ISPs -- ones that can't afford to develop their own tracking software -- allow the FBI to put Carnivore on their networks, the FBI spokesman said.

It's the smaller providers that seem most worried about the FBI's renewed efforts to expand installation of Carnivore, said Dave McClure, president of the U.S. Internet Industry Association, an online industry trade group. Many know they can't afford to create the kind of tracking software EarthLink did. They also know they could lose customers and open themselves to lawsuits if they agree to install the software, he said.

"Carnivore just scoops up everything," McClure said. "What sorts of liabilities does that create for the ISP?"

Ed Bryson, owner of Esper Systems, a 6,000-subscriber ISP based in Knoxville, said if he were presented with a court order, he'd have to let the FBI install Carnivore.

"I do not have any tracking capability right now," said Bryson, whose company had $800,000 in revenue last year.

"I'm not a Big Brother lover, but I have to respect the FBI."

McClure said, so far, small ISPs have not pooled resources to create their own tracking software, and he doubts that will happen.

Instead, just as America's Old West slowly adopted laws and lost wildness, the Internet will become a more "zoned" place, he predicts.

"We are losing the free-wheeling days of the Internet," he said, "not so much because we're going to war as because it's time to grow up."

----------- Xeni Jardin xeni@xeni.net | www.xeni.net | YIM: xeni_jardin ----------------------------------------

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