Bush Admin. Plans Mandatory Government Internet Monitoring

au1929 had a thread started on this the other day http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2225&highlight=

As I said there, I'd like to see more details come forth on what this really is. As a Internet Network Operations guy I know that "monitoring" can mean a lot of different things to different people. The regular "user" would probably assume that it means something like reading data (i.e. e-mail, instant messaging, etc..) going back and forth but to me it means something very different.

What do you think it means, Fishin'?

Well, IMHO, when there is a threat of non-conventional (even, maybe nuclear) terror attack on the civilized world, some limitations imposed on people's privacy can be explicable.
It is necessary to provide legal limitations that will enable government to use only the information pertaining to terror activities, and, maybe to the most serious crime (like homicide, drugs trafficking, money laundering, large-scale fraud and tax evasion). All the other information obtained through Internet monitoring should be disregarded by courts as evidence.
All the information obtained by means of the Internet monitoring should be classified and inaccessible to inappropriate persons and organizations (e.g., employers, landlords, etc.).

fishin',
I ,too, would like to know.
Some time ago there was the concept of "Total Information Awareness" in the news.
Are these two related?

scary....

In response to dlowan and ul - For networks I managed "monitoring" generally means keeping track of each piece of equipment and it's status (i.e. know if it is 100% functional or not) as well as every circuit in between those pieces of equipment. An ISP has to know that from a customer service presepective an well as a performance management perspective.

In addition a medium to large ISP will look at things like traffic patterens so that they can see where data is coming into their network as well as leaving it so that they can route the IP Packets in the most efficient (i.e. fastest and cheapest) means across their network. They would also want to look at IP address information and what type of data is being passed to see where their customers are trying to get to. That tells them which other ISPs they might want to consider interconnecting with to improve their system's overall performance.

You could think of this type of monitoring as similar to a doorman in an apartment building. He sees who goes in and out, can call the police if someone who shouldn't be there is trying to get in, etc.. but he doesn't necessarily know what goes on inside the building once the authorized people get in there or what they do with whatever was in the bags/bridfecases they brought in with them.

Each ISP of any size does this type of stuff and they'll call it either "Traffic Management" or "Traffic Shaping". Their systems note the originating and destination of all the IP packets that traverse their network. That information can also be used to detect a possible "attack" against their network but... they can only see their network.

This is why I'm interested in what the actual proposal is. Is it just taking this type of info from each ISP and looking at it across all of them (that would give a better picture than each just looking at their own..) or is it actually looking at the specific content within those IP Packets and reading e-mail, tracking which WWW sites people are going to, etc.. That type of thing isn't something that ISPs do but is what I think most "users" envision when they read or hear about "monitoring".

If the proposal is "monitoring" in the sense I'm used to there isn't a whole lot of danger in the government doing that. If it's actually reading the data then I have some serious concerns.

Thanks fishin'.
In my opinion it aims to reading the data- I really hope that I am wrong, but "1984" seems to become reality.
Have you had a look in these links?

http://www.darpa.mil/iao/TIASystems.htm

Here we read about Datamining-meaning getting profiles of as many internet users as possible, including emails, purchades by credit card, reservations with a travel agency.


Carnivore ?
And it is aimed to the whole world.

As loath as I am to bring in themes that smack of conspiracy (cue spooky music) the NSA is currently running 'Echelon'. It is an intelligence gathering program that basically captures and processes just about every electronic communication on the planet (at the very least it has that capability).

Prior to this "Operation Shamrock" (who exactly thinks up these names?) routinely collected every telegraphic communication in and out of the US. Even I think this sounds paranoid, but it really did happen!

The ease and flexibility of electronic communications is also reflected in the demonstrated ease of capturing and analysing them. In the good old days if I did produce a single copy of a document on a manual typewriter and then sent in to a trusted mail drop it was less likely to be intercepted - lucky I have no need to do that. Err, that's right isn't it?

NSA, Mr Stillwater? What is that?

Personally, I figure it like this. I would never post anything that I would be embarrassed to see on the front page of my newspaper.

Yikes!

dlowan- I have a hide like an elephant!

They make lotions for that Phoenix!

I have a hide like the pea princess.....wimper...

Very Egregious Infringement on Civil Liberties
This recent statement of intention by the B. Administration represents a further infringement on the Civil Liberties of Americans. It's not a light weight issue, and many netizons agree with these opinions of mine, I've just shared.

There are many millions of people on the Internet who are discussing this issue, too, including me.

"National Security" was never so hostile toward citizens as a movement, as it is now. Oh, and we're no more secure because of it, but far less so.

So - how would/does such a thing work?

By key words?

By targeting "high-risk" groups?

Random sampling of traffic?

Mr. Still Water:

Who thinks up these names?

The same personality types that think up the Brand names for drugs.

dlowan- I have heard (can't supply any links) that there ARE certain subjects, words and phrases that causes the "bell to ring". I would write down a few of them here, but I don't want anybody tracking me! I would also assume if those words, being sent back and forth from particular areas of the world, might send up the red flag!

NSA is National Security Agency, Deb, headquarters at Ft. Meade, Maryland, if you care. They have long monitored (can't cite) phonecalls between the US and everywhere else for keywords. Since so many calls get involved in microwave transmission, it is a bit difficult to separate intra from international calls.