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US CARNIVORE
Carnivore is information-gathering software created by the FBI to combat criminals who utilize the Internet. Carnivore is housed in a computer that connects to your Internet Service Provider's (ISP's) servers and mines all incoming and outgoing mail for information. The FBI intends to use the software to locate and monitor specific email addresses for evidence of criminal activity. In the process of monitoring any account, Carnivore must sift through all available account information on a given server. The objection many privacy advocates, legislators, and the general public have with Carnivore is that the net it casts is too wide. The FBI would have the ability to look through the accounts and email of people not suspected or charged with any crime. Further, the public would have no protection or knowledge of unlawful or accidental seizures of account information. Basically, you have to trust the FBI not to invade your privacy. HushMail v. Carnivore HushMail's security cannot be broken or weakened by this government sponsored snooping software. Hush's security system is a lot like a circuit, when one Hush user communicates with another Hush user, the circuit is complete and the mail they send is completely safe. To anyone other than the sender or the recipient of a Hush message, email appears as a jumble of numbers and letters. It is completely illegible. The only way to decrypt or unscramble Hush messages is by using your passphrase when you open up your HushMail account. Carnivore cannot decrypt your mail, and is therefore, powerless against messages sent between Hush users. See for further information: New:
US Department of Justice, Draft
Report: Independent Technical Review of the Carnivore System,
November 2000. For further information see http://cryptome.org/carnivore-mask.htm
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