Staff Writer, CNET News.com
The CIA is quietly funding federal research into surveillance of Internet chat rooms as part of an effort to identify possible terrorists, newly released documents reveal.
In April 2003, the CIA agreed to fund a series of research projects that the documents indicate were intended to create "new capabilities to combat terrorism through advanced technology." One of those projects is research at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., devoted to automated monitoring and profiling of the behavior of chat-room users.
Their proposal, also disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, received $157,673 from the CIA and NSF. It says: "We propose a system to be deployed in the background of any chat room as a silent listener for eavesdropping...The proposed system could aid the intelligence community to discover hidden communities and communication patterns in chat rooms without human intervention."
Riiiiight. This shouldn't come as any big surprise to us. But somehow, I really don't think that terrorists that want to blow up our country are spending their time in chat rooms where the most pressing questions are "A/S/L?" and "Got a pic?" Who knows? Maybe there are some terrorists who used to watch "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and want to chat with other Buffy lovers. Or maybe there are some terrorists that are into quilting, and want to chat with other quilters and exchange patterns.
1 comment:
....hmm...sounds like 1984 is finally happening.
courtney
Post a Comment