ViceZilla’s Views

“Overproduction”, a term used by the F.B.I. describing when a telecommunications provider gives the government more data than it was ordered to provide. An example of overproduction would be continuing a wiretap for days, weeks beyond what was authorized. Or the provider mistakenly setting its e-mail filtering equipment to trap far more data than a judge had actually authorized.

A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more — instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret intelligence court as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal report of the 2006 episode.

So what’s the F.B.I. going to do when they receive more data than the law allows? They claim that “ultimately” the data was destroyed, saying “It’s inevitable that these things will happen. It’s not weekly, but it’s common.”

So now we see why Bush wants immunity for the idiots at the telecommunications companies, because of these common, innevitable, glitches, resulting in overproduction of personal data about you and me! The F.B.I. of course is not taking any responsibility for these glitches, saying that about half of the violations were a result of “third party error” in which a private company provided the F.B.I. information they did not seek. OK then, who is responsible for the other half of errors?

The other question to this illegal wiretapping saga is can the F.B.I. be trusted when they say the data is “ultimately” destroyed? What exactly do they do with it before it’s destroyed? Do you think the F.B.I. has our civil liberties rights in mind as they receive more data than they are allowed to receive because of a “glitch?” Somehow I’m thinking a big fat NO!
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Technorati Tags: Wiretapping, Illegal Wiretapping, FISA, FBI, Overproduction, Domestic Spying,

Tags: Musings, War on Terror //