Can the FBI Monitor Your Web Browsing?

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Sun, 16 Jan 2005 19:37:21 EST

Fwd: Can the FBI Monitor Your Web Browsing?

 

 

 

R... writes:

 

Can the FBI Monitor Your Web Browsing Without a Warrant?

EFF Demands Answers from DOJ about PATRIOT Act Surveillance

 

Washington, DC - Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation(EFF)

filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI

and other offices of the US Department of Justice,

seeking the release of documents that would reveal whether

the government has been using the USA PATRIOT Act to spy

on Internet users' reading habits without a search warrant.

 

At issue is PATRIOT Section 216, which expanded the government's

authority to conduct surveillance in criminal investigations

using pen registers or trap and trace devices ( " pen-traps " ).

 

Pen-traps collect information about the numbers dialed

on a telephone but do not record the actual content

of phone conversations. Because of this limitation,

court orders authorizing pen-trap surveillance are easy to get

- instead of having to show probable cause, the government

need only certify relevance to its investigation.

Also, the government never has to inform people that they are

or were the subjects of pen-trap surveillance.

 

PATRIOT expanded pen-traps to include devices that monitor

Internet communications. But the line between non-content and content

is a lot blurrier online than it is on phone networks.

The DOJ has said openly that the new definitions

allow pen-traps to collect email and IP addresses.

However, the DOJ has not been so forthcoming about web surveillance.

It won't reveal whether it believes URLs can be collected

using pen-traps, despite the fact that URLs clearly reveal

content by identifying the web pages being read. EFF made its

FOIA request specifically to gain access to documents that might

reveal whether the DOJ is using pen-traps to monitor web browsing.

 

" It's been over three years since the USA PATRIOT Act was passed,

and the DOJ still hasn't answered the public's simple question:

'Can you see what we're reading on the Web without probable cause?' "

said Kevin Bankston, EFF Staff Attorney

and Bruce J. Ennis Equal Justice Works Fellow.

 

" Much of PATRIOT is coming up for review this year, but we can

never have a full and informed debate of the issues when the DOJ

won't explain how it has been using these new surveillance powers. "

 

The law firm,DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary assisted EFF in preparing the

FOIA request and will help with any litigation if the DOJ fails to

respond.

 

FOIA request:

<http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlID=378>

 

For this release:

<http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_01.php#002213>

 

 

 

 

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