Big Brother

It was interesting to see two different posts on Slashdot this last week about the FBI's Carnivore program, since I've just started reading Lawrence Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. So far it's made me realise something I've known for a long time; I need to read the Federalist Papers.

I've always tended to think that things like Carnivore are an unauthorised search and siezure and would be clearly illegal. I'm starting to understand more about why there's ambiguity. And that just motivates me more to understand the framers' intentions.

At any rate, it's largely moot since the private sector is happy to invade our privacy and is sufficiently able to mine much of the data the government wants. So far (I'm only 30 pages in) Code has seemed outdated in a few places, but it is six years old and the internet changes so fast, plus you throw in Sept. 11, that it's not too surprising. But then today Marketplace has a segment on this very sort of surveillance and I'm reminded that the legal issues still aren't clear and if anything the trend is towards more invasive monitoring and an erosion of our rights.