We may lose some of our freedom regardless of what they say...
-Clappy
Privacy Trade-Offs Reassessed
Objections to Surveillance Technology Face New Test After Attack
By Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jonathan
Krim
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 13, 2001; Page E01
When the FBI came knocking a
year ago, asking Internet companies
to install an e-mail eavesdropping
program so that the bureau could
catch potential criminals, many
executives balked. It was, they said,
an invasion of personal privacy.
But yesterday, when the agents
came seeking information that might
help them find the perpetrators of
the attacks that likely killed
thousands at the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, some
were willing -- even eager -- to help
out.
"As much as I don't like the
intrusive nature of online
surveillance technology, I really
want to find the guys who did this,"
said a security director at a mid-size
Internet access provider who asked
not to be identified because the
investigation is ongoing.
Just two days after the worst
terrorist strike on U.S. soil, some
people are reassessing the
trade-offs between privacy and security.
To some, inconveniences such as long lines at metal detectors and other
checkpoints suddenly seem tolerable. Instead of talking about how eerie the
sight of military planes and tanks in New York and Washington is, some are
saying they find them comforting. Surveillance cameras monitoring public
streets sound sensible.
But others are wondering just how much freedom they would be willing to
give up. Some worry that this week's violence will lead to an overreaction that
tramples on people's rights, such as the internment of Japanese Americans
after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
"Yesterday changed the way we live and there's a whole new dimension in the
debate over privacy versus security," said Mike Assante, a former Navy
intelligence officer who works for Vigilinx Inc., a Parsippany, N.J.-based
group that provides online security services for companies such as power
plants and pharmaceutical makers. "More people seem to be willing to
compromise but no one seems to have figured out just yet what's reasonable."
Members of Congress said yesterday they want to study whether giving the
government more surveillance authority might avert such attacks in the future.
Both Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, and Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl separately said lawmakers
need to consider whether the capabilities should be strengthened. But that
reassessment should be "consistent with constitutional freedoms at the core of
our national ideals," Leahy said yesterday.
"The question is whether you overreact in pursuit of a handful of terrorists and
in the process change the constitutional protections of millions of American
citizens," said Joseph Turow, a professor who specializes in privacy and new
media at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of
Communication.
Some telephone companies yesterday announced they were prepared to
expedite wiretapping requests from the FBI. The agency, meanwhile, has
been seeking customer information and e-mail messages from Internet service
providers for some of the people on the passenger lists for the four planes that
were apparently hijacked, sources said.
The agency declined to comment on the requests, citing its policy of not
talking about the details of open investigations. But the country's largest and
third-largest online services, America Online Inc. and EarthLink Inc.,
confirmed that they had received requests from the government. Like other
Internet providers, the two have generally greeted subpoenas, court orders
and the like seeking information about their customers begrudgingly. The
language they used yesterday was markedly more receptive.
"We have been approached [by law enforcement officials], and we've
complied. And we stand ready to help some more," said AOL spokesman
Nicholas Graham. EarthLink's Dan Greenfield concurred: "EarthLink is
cooperating with government officials to get to the bottom of this thing."
AOL, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., declined to comment about the
number or nature of requests, but EarthLink's Greenfield, a vice president,
said the company had received one request for what he called an "electronic
wiretap."
The two companies emphasized that the FBI had not installed Carnivore, the
nickname for a controversial e-mail eavesdropping technology that has drawn
the ire of lawmakers and consumer advocates. They said they were using their
own technology to pull data from their systems.
Several smaller providers located on the West Coast, however, said on the
condition of anonymity that they had agreed to allow the FBI to use their
equipment to monitor e-mail traffic. They declined to comment on when the
eavesdropping equipment, formally known as DSC1000, would be
operational or how long it would remain up. The system is basically a black
box that sits on an Internet provider's network watching communications.
Federal agents retrieve information by physically taking a removable memory
core from the system.
Privacy advocates have been concerned about the technology's ability to
track everyone's e-mail, including innocent citizens suspected of nothing. The
FBI has said the technology can home in on specific communications it needs
to examine but it has not been willing to divulge how the technology works.
Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.) said no new law-enforcement initiatives
should be enacted at the expense of civilian rights against unwarranted
government intrusion.
"When the president talks about fighting back to protect our freedom, that
includes freedom from intrusion into innocent people's lives," Goodlatte said in
an interview. "We can't have our society go to one of Big Brother."
But Eva Chung, a 34-year-old from Columbia, who is a mother of two young
children, said that after the nightmares of the past few days, Big Brother
doesn't sound all that bad. She said she has been grateful for all the additional
security measures she has seen introduced in the area recently. Rather than
being frightened by the soldiers with machine guns in front of the White
House, she said she was glad they were there.
"I am very much for what this country was founded on, freedom and the Bill
of Rights and everything. But when it's a matter of people's lives and making
sure we all have a nice place to live, then I would definitely give up the privacy
part to ensure the other part," Chung said.
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