More of this Feature Part 2: Echelon! Related Resources Carnivore, Sniffers, and You Carnivore Directory

Carnivore and ISPs

Carnivore does not work like a single-phone line wiretap; it must be installed on the public Internet where it filters through many otherwise uninvolved people's data to get to the subject(s) of interest. Inevitably, the best location in the USA for a system like Carnivore is inside the data center of a large Internet Service Provider (ISP). Not all ISPs are thrilled with this arrangment, however.

StopCarnivore.org, a site that claims "federal wiretapping has gone too far," maintains a Feedback Area where the position of ISPs relative to Carnivore are listed and discussed. Earthlink [disclaimer: the author's primary ISP] has been the most staunch in its opposition to the FBI's tool although not in the goals of the system per se.

In 2000, Earthlink made this statement regarding Carnivore that corresponds to the position of many in the opposition:

"We do not allow the installation of Carnivore on our network because it has the potential to compromise the privacy of our legitimate users and the performance of our network. We have an internal solution which allows us to comply with court orders without the presence of government personnel or equipment in our buildings."

Carnivore Technology and Altivore

Carnivore offers little new in the way of network technology. In fact, Network ICE developed an open-source program called Altivore that duplicates Carnivore's features, namely

• monitoring of an individual's e-mail (either headers or full content)
• monitoring an individual's accesses to certain types of servers (Web, FTP, etc.)
• discovery of an individual's current IP address (including dial-up connections) and sniffing of packets for that address

With Altivore, Network ICE intends to educate at least the tech-savvy public about Carnivore and some of the potential pitfalls involved.

The key technical elements of the Carnivore platform include a Windows server, a removable Jaz drive where filtered data are stored, and technology for controlled access (including no TCP/IP support for incoming connections).