What is Carnivore?

Carnivore is an automated system developed and used by the FBI to scan electronic mail messages. Carnivore includes both hardware and software components installed at a suspect's Internet service provider, although few details about its capabilities and limitations are known. Critics have referred to Carnivore as a "black box" capable of broad privacy violations with little or no accountability, while the FBI says that Carnivore enhances privacy by enabling the FBI to limit the communications that it intercepts to those specifically authorized by a court.

On July 12, 2000, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the FBI to release all of its records on Carnivore, including the source code. The FBI and the Justice Department ignored EPIC's request, and EPIC subsequently obtained a court order requiring the FBI to disclose Carnivore documents.

The FBI says that it has located 3000 pages of material on Carnivore. On October 2, 2000, the FBI disclosed the first set of documents -- a total of 565 pages of material. EPIC reports that nearly 200 pages were withheld in full, and another 400 pages were redacted, many completely except for the page numbers. (EPIC has posted an example on its website.)

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has engaged an outside organization to conduct an "independent" review of Carnivore, although EPIC and other critics of Carnivore say this review will do little to alleviate their concerns about Carnivore.