Privacy Risks of Internet Eavesdropping Abstract: In recent months, the FBI has taken steps to implement an Internet eavesdropping scheme called Carnivore. This paper discusses the possible risks of this system with respect to personal privacy, analyzes the technical flaws in the system that produce these risks, and discusses recent US legislation to loosen legal restrictions on its implementation and use. On September 11, 2001, a group of terrorists carried out a methodically planned and almost perfectly executed attack on major sites across the United States, toppling two of the nation's tallest buildings. Two days later, on September 13, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation that could serve to roll back one of its greatest freedoms: the right to privacy. This legislation, which its drafters Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have dubbed the "Combating Terrorism Act of 2001," would loosen restrictions on FBI wiretaps, including its nascent surveillance system Internet "Carnivore" [1]. Carnivore is a system introduced by the FBI to provide it with "a 'surgical' ability to intercept and collect communications that are the subject of a lawful order, ignoring those communications which [it is] not authorized to intercept" [2] . It works similarly to a network packet sniffer, which intercepts and copies all the bits of information passing through a network. It differs from a regular packet sniffer, however, in that it is designed to distinguish from the noise those bits of information that apply to a specific court order [2]. There is nothing new about the FBI conducting surveillance; what distinguishes Carnivore from surveillance methods of the past... half of the paper... Responses." http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20000713.html, July 13, 2000.4. Wingfield, Nick, et al . "Earthlink simply says no to the FBI carnivore" http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2603945,00.html, July 14, 2000.5 .aclu.org/action/carnivore107.html: An "Action Alert" from American Civil Liberties Union calling on people to denounce Carnivore.6 http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=6534&cid=933650: A comment from a semi-anonymous reader of the open source advocacy site Slashdot.org.7 http://www.senate.gov/legislative/vote1071 /vote_00279.html: an official record of the vote that took place on the "Combating Terrorism Act of 2001", legislation introduced in the Senate.8 http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/carnivore/letter3.htm: A letter to the Los Angeles Post from John E. Collingwood, an FBI spokesman