So how 'bout that wacky Carnivore system, huh? While it's not strictly an Apple-related subject, since it potentially affects everyone who ever uses email, we still consider it highly relevant. (And even if it weren't relevant, that's never stopped us from talking about something before-- remember last year's Fridge Saga?) Anyway, Carnivore is the FBI's "superfast system" that can intercept, search, and log "millions of e-mails a second," according the Wall Street Journal. Reportedly, when the FBI is granted a federal wiretap order, they can wander into an ISP, hook up the Carnivore, and have instant access to every message that travels across that ISP's systems. So if you're, you know, conducting your illegal drug-trafficking and child porn business over email, we'd strongly advise you to stop-- for reasons too numerous to list.

Now, what has privacy advocates up in arms over Carnivore is that it's remarkably broad in the scope of the messages it processes. Whereas tapping a suspected criminal's phone only lets the bureau listen in on calls placed to and by that individual, using Carnivore gives the feds access to every email message sent or received by everyone using that ISP. If a suspected counterfeiter uses EarthLink and the FBI hooks up Carnivore to get evidence against him, the government also has access to all of your mail, assuming you just happen to be an EarthLink subscriber as well. Betcha didn't suspect that your choice of ISP could put you in the same surveillance boat with counterfeiters and organized crime lords, huh?

Since word of Carnivore's existence broke a few months back, the ACLU has issued an open letter to Representatives Canady and Watt of the House Judiciary Committee to protest the system's overly-broad scope. The gist of the argument is very reasonable: when the FBI is granted the right to eavesdrop on the communications of a particular target, it should not be allowed to intercept the messages of thousands of bystanders and then simply trusted to ignore everything but the target's mail. In particular, we dug this line: "This 'trust us, we're the Government' approach is the antithesis of the procedures required under our the [sic] wiretapping laws." Hmmm... Suppose the folks in the Microsoft marketing department are upset that the U.S. government grabbed that slogan before they could?