Originally Posted by
Superguy
Don't forget about the FBI's Carnivore.
While there is too much data out there to sift thru it all, I think enough evidence has been shown that NSA has done some "overcollection." I don't think the gov't would have been pushing so hard for telco immunity if something weren't going on. Collection is already permitted and legal if a warrant is issued. They wouldn't need immunity for that.
Now Carnivore was truly meant to target specific users electronic communications. It was nothing more than a packet sniffer that filtered based on a target users IP address. Carnivore was never anything globally implemented, but it could be used just like a wiretap. You get a court order and the user's ISP plugged this device into their network (unless the ISP would cooperate without a court order) and off it went.