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FBI Offers Carnivore Data (Slowly)

Privacy groups want information faster, under Freedom of Information Act request.

Margret Johnston, IDG News Service

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The FBI plans to release within 45 days the first of 3000 pages of documents about its Carnivore e-mail surveillance system, answering a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by civil liberties and privacy groups.

The FBI laid out its schedule for releasing the documents in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late Wednesday. It didn't say how many of the documents would be released initially, but plans to release documents at 45-day intervals.

The court earlier in August ordered the FBI to provide information about how it plans to release the documents. The FBI told the court it must review the 3000 documents page by page to determine what can be released under FOIA, an FBI spokesperson says. Some information can be withheld even from FOIA requests because of national security, privacy, and other concerns. (See "'Carnivore' Under Review, Reno Says.")

The FBI's promised timetable is still too vague for the privacy and civil liberties organizations that filed the FOIA request.

"I just don't consider this expedited, especially since we don't really know what it means in terms of time," says David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Under this, they could process one page every 45 days."

It would have been clearer if the FBI had pledged to release a specific number of pages at each 45-day interval. Also, the parties could estimate when the process would end, Sobel says.

Wanted: All Carnivore Records

EPIC and the American Civil Liberties Union filed the FOIA request in July. They seek all FBI records related to Carnivore and other FBI electronic surveillance tools. (See "ACLU Challenges FBI E-Mail Taps.")

Those records may include letters, e-mail messages, tape recordings, technical manuals, source code, and object code.

Sobel said it isn't clear what bearing the FBI's court filing might have on the request for computer code. In any case, EPIC will probably ask the judge to revise the FBI's proposed schedule, Sobel adds.

The FBI uses Carnivore in criminal and national security investigations to read the e-mail of suspects and determine with whom the suspects are exchanging e-mail. The FBI has said its use is legal under U.S. wiretap law. EPIC, the ACLU, and some members of Congress aren't convinced that Carnivore meets those strict guidelines. (See "FBI Cagey About Carnivore.")

The FBI has said that it is seeking a university or independent laboratory to conduct verification and validation of the Carnivore system.

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