So shall we invite the CIA to the next AoIR conference? (smile) In seriousness, I thought this report would be of considerable to many Airists who know something about chatroom research and how easy it is to profile users... (_not_ smiling this time...) Charles Ess Fall '04: Fulbright Senior Scholar Universität Trier Fachbereich II Fakultäten der Medienwissenschaft, Sinologie Universitätsring 15 54296 Trier (Germany) Office phone: (49) (0)651-201-3744 Sekretariat: (49) (0)651-201-3203 Fax: (49) (0)651-201-3741 Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23 ------ Forwarded Message From: George Lessard <media@web.net> Reply-To: <chineseinternetresearch@yahoogroups.com> Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 10:05:50 -0700 To: Chinese Internet Research List <chineseinternetresearch@yahoogroups.com> Cc: L mediamentor <mediamentor@yahoogroups.com> Subject: [chineseinternetresearch] National Science Foundation to help CIA spy on IRC chatrooms <http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39126120,00.htm>http:// management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39126120,00.htm CIA checks out chatrooms November 25 2004 by Declan McCullagh [Excerpts] 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 behaviour of chatroom users. Even though the money ostensibly comes from the National Science Foundation, CIA officials were involved in selecting recipients for the research grants, according to a contract between the two agencies obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and reviewed by silicon.com sister site CNET News.com. EPIC director Marc Rotenberg, whose nonprofit group obtained the documents through the Freedom of Information Act, said the CIA's clandestine involvement was worrisome. "The intelligence community is changing the priorities of scientific research in the US," Rotenberg said. "You have to be careful that the National Science Foundation doesn't become the National Spy Foundation." A CIA representative would not answer questions, saying the agency's policy is never to talk about funding. The two Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers involved, Bulent Yener and Mukkai Krishnamoorthy, did not respond to interview requests. Yener and Krishnamoorthy, both associate professors of computer science, wrote that their research would involve writing a program for "silently listening" to an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel and "logging all the messages". A June 2004 paper they published, also funded by the NSF, described a project that quietly monitored users of the popular Undernet network, which has about 144,000 users and 50,000 channels. In the paper, Yener and Krishnamoorthy predicted their work "could aid [the] intelligence community to eavesdrop in chatrooms, profile chatters and identify hidden groups of chatters in a cost-effective way" and that their future research will focus on identifying "topic-based information". -- -- = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Via / By / Excerpted / From / Tip from / Thanks to: JULES SIEGEL Apdo. 1764 77501-Cancun Q. Roo Mexico http://www.cafecancun.com/portfolio Newsroom-l, news and issues for journalists http://www.newsroom-l.net/blog © info http://members.tripod.com/~media002/disclaimer.htm Due to the nature of email & the WWW, check ALL sources. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor <http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=129e02o8a/M=296572.5585671.6651487.3001176/D=gr oups/S=1705004924:HM/EXP=1101748008/A=2343726/R=0/SIG=12ivg7cu0/*http://clk. atdmt.com/VON/go/yhxxxvon01900091von/direct/01/&time=1101661608093081> Get unlimited calls to U.S./Canada <http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=129e02o8a/M=296572.5585671.6651487.3001176/D=gr oups/S=1705004924:HM/EXP=1101748008/A=2343726/R=1/SIG=12ivg7cu0/*http://clk. atdmt.com/VON/go/yhxxxvon01900091von/direct/01/&time=1101661608093081> Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: * http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chineseinternetresearch/ * * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: * chineseinternetresearch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <mailto:chineseinternetresearch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscr ibe> * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> . ------ End of Forwarded Message