The Olmsteadian Seizure Clause(intangible property search/seizure and implications of the 4th)

Stanford Technology Law Review ^ | 2008 | Paul Ohm

[Vendome]

Call it the vacuum-cleaner approach. It's employed when police have obtained a court order and an Internet service provider can't "isolate the particular person or IP address" because of technical constraints, says Paul Ohm, a former trial attorney at the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. (An Internet Protocol address is a series of digits that can identify an individual computer.)

That kind of full-pipe surveillance can record all Internet traffic, including Web browsing--or, optionally, only certain subsets such as all e-mail messages flowing through the network. Interception typically takes place inside an Internet provider's network at the junction point of a router or network switch.

[Vendome]

"What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."

It's transparent all right.

For a quick read: http://www.zdnet.com/news/fbi-turns-to-broad-new-wiretap-method/151059

Full Article in PDF: http://stlr.stanford.edu/pdf/ohm-olmsteadian-seizure-clause.pdf