FBI pressuring Internet providers to install surveillance software

The government has software to intercept online metadata in real time and is pushing providers to help them use it

Published August 5, 2013 8:20PM (EDT)

  (Shutterstock)
(Shutterstock)

According to a report Monday from CNET, the government is not only hoarding vast swaths of metadata about nearly every online communication within and going out of the U.S., it is also able to intercept this data in real time using specially designed software. CNET revealed that the FBI has been pressuring Internet providers to install this software to enable easier and immediate interception of metadata.

Via CNET:

FBI officials have been sparring with carriers, a process that has on occasion included threats of contempt of court, in a bid to deploy government-provided software capable of intercepting and analyzing entire communications streams. The FBI's legal position during these discussions is that the software's real-time interception of metadata is authorized under the Patriot Act.

Attempts by the FBI to install what it internally refers to as "port reader" software, which have not been previously disclosed, were described to CNET in interviews over the last few weeks. One former government official said the software used to be known internally as the "harvesting program."

Carriers are "extra-cautious" and are resisting installation of the FBI's port reader software, an industry participant in the discussions said, in part because of the privacy and security risks of unknown surveillance technology operating on an sensitive internal network.

It's "an interception device by definition," said the industry participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court proceedings are sealed. "If magistrates knew more, they would approve less." It's unclear whether any carriers have installed port readers, and at least one is actively opposing the installation.


By Natasha Lennard

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.

MORE FROM Natasha Lennard


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Fbi Metadata Nsa Patriot Act Privacy Surveillance