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."
>
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