Privacy Group (EFF) Files Suit Against FBI
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it is suing the Department of Justice because the FBI failed to respond in time to its Freedom of Information Act request for records on the DCS-3000 and Red Hook programs.
DCS-3000 is an interception system that the EFF said apparently evolved out of Carnivore, a system later renamed DCS-1000. The FBI developed Carnivore to read e-mails and other online communications among suspected criminals, terrorists and spies, but privacy groups and lawmakers complained it could collect much more than allowed by a warrant.
A Justice Department Inspector General report in March said the FBI had spent about $10 million on DCS-3000 to intercept communications over emerging digital technologies used by wireless carriers before next year’s federal deadline for them to deploy their own wiretap capabilities.
The same report said the FBI spent more than $1.5 million to develop Red Hook, “a system to collect voice and data calls and then process and display the intercepted information” before those wiretap capabilities are in place. [Full Article]