IP: Five university groups say no to Carnivore review

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 22:44:15 -0400
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Will Rodger <rodger () worldnet att net>
> Subject: Five university groups say no to Carnivore review
>
> http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndstue06.htm
>
> "Carnivore" unlikely to be validated
>
> By Will Rodger, USA TODAY.com
>
> Five groups of researchers have bowed out of the competition to evaluate 
> the so-called Carnivore Internet surveillance system. And that likely will 
> dash Justice Department hopes that a major university would validate its 
> controversial eavesdropping device, participants said Tuesday.
>
> Attorney General Janet Reno seemed confident Aug. 10 that one of several 
> then-unnamed schools would take up the challenge of verifying that 
> Carnivore, when properly used, would not violate the civil rights of 
> individuals subject to its workings.
>
> But rules for the review published Aug. 24 have encountered stiff 
> opposition from researchers approached for the job by the Justice 
> Department. The Department, they say now, is effectively asking for a 
> meaningless examination of a device whose potential for abuse may well 
> outstrip its usefulness.
>
> "This is not a request for an independent report," says Jeffrey Schiller, 
> a computer network manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
> who was asked to work on the review. "They want a rubber stamp."
>
> <snip>
> ..............................