AOL Gives Department of Homeland Security Unlimited Surveillance Power

The Financial Reporter (U.K.)

Washington- The American-based internet giant, AOL, wholly-owned by Time-Warner, has formed a working partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to permit unlimited surveillance of the millions of AOL online members, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“AOL works ‘closely with the DHS’ to supply information on any AOL customer and allows agents from these entities ‘free and unfettered’ access to AOL Hq at Dulles, VA for the purpose of ‘watching over and keeping surveillance ’ on the millions of AOL customers,’ according to the report.

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Unlimited Spam blocking, Virus protection, spyware blocking, and free chat.

Just be careful what you say because freedom of speech is a relative term these days soon to be outlawed...

The first thing they will do is crack down on the internet. No suprise AOL Timewarner was the company that blocked Alex Jones' site for a short while.

[edit on 12-10-2005 by UFObeliever]

pretty 'stand out' move if you ask me towards the big surveillance/control theory/reality?...I don't have a good feeling towards homeland security

That does it, I am going to keep my $$ away from these vultures..
long time aol member..

AOL is the largest babysitter in the world today. They restrict their users from all kinds of things on the web that might harm them. I'm not saying thats a bad thing either. Allot of newbies actually need that level of protection until they learn a bit more about keeping themselves safe online.

As an example, I had a friend on AOL use its search engine and look for the word "Root." He got a couple of plant sites and not much else. I then had him use a more unfettered search engine while not on AOL and up came several sites on hacking and proggies and such. The idiot actually visited a few of those sites after i left and, well, the results weren't pretty. He belonged in the protective arms of AOL.

Considering the resources at the disposal of the government, such as Echelon (sp?), i'm surprised they'd even need this cooperation. Ah well, such is life.

Love and light,

Wupy

[edit on 12-10-2005 by mrwupy]

AOL has been one of the worst services around for a while. They record every word you say at any given time for monitoring.

This, however, isn't a huge deal. If DHS wanted to, they could check anything anytime. You may or may not like that, but it's not new. No one, not even the biggest ISP, is going to resist the DHS if they ask. Superfluous really, AOL's just making friends.

Originally posted by Amorymeltzer
AOL has been one of the worst services around for a while. They record every word you say at any given time for monitoring.

This, however, isn't a huge deal. If DHS wanted to, they could check anything anytime. You may or may not like that, but it's not new. No one, not even the biggest ISP, is going to resist the DHS if they ask. Superfluous really, AOL's just making friends.

They used to call it Carnivore, but its been renamed DCS1000.

The controversial Internet surveillance tool known as "Carnivore" has been renamed DCS1000, a name devoid of any negative associations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters, Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman, said, "With upgrades come new names."

The old name of a flesh-eating predator had conjured up "unfortunate" images for many people, he added.

Carnivore is specialized software installed on an Internet service provider's network under federal wiretap authority. Used in criminal and national security cases, it is capable of keeping tabs on a suspect's e-mail, instant messages and Web surfing activities.

Continued...