Policeware

Policeware is software designed to police citizens by monitoring discussion and interaction of its citizens. Within the U.S., Carnivore was a first incarnation of secretly installed e-mail monitoring software installed in Internet service providers' networks to log computer communication, including transmitted e-mails. Magic Lantern is another such application, this time running in a targeted computer in a trojan style and performing keystroke logging. Oasis, software developed by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is designed for converting intercepted audio into searchable text. CIPAV, deployed by FBI, is a spyware/trojan allegedly designed for identification of a computer.

A new incarnation was the CBDTPA for "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act", a bill proposed in the United States Congress by Senators Fritz Hollings (D-SC) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), along with Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI), John Breaux (D-LA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). The CBDTPA was known as the "SSSCA" while in draft form, and was killed in committee in 2002.

Instead, a massive, allegedly illegal [ [http://www.eff.org/cases/att NSA Multi-District Litigation: Documents Relating to All Cases and Dismissed Cases | Electronic Frontier Foundation ] ] program to monitor all available Internet traffic using Narus STA policeware was begun by the NSA in 2003.

Had the CBDTPA become law, it would have required all new personal computers and digital home entertainment devices sold in the United States to have government-approved "policeware" built in. This policeware would restrict usage of copyrighted material on these devices — including music files and CDs, video clips, DVDs, e-books, and more, via Trusted Computing (TC) technologies and Digital Rights Management (DRM).

References

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See also

*Trusted platform module
*Surveillance
*Privacy
*Room 641A / Hepting v. AT&T