Eavesdropping

Spies in the "Forests"

Website comment: Last week, The Independent reported that a US spy agency had patented a system for eavesdropping on phone calls. Now it is lab-testing software that can sift through calls and e-mails in search of key phrases

By Suelette Dreyfus

THE US Department of Defense is lab-testing technology that could make it easier automatically to sift through a vast pool of private communications, including international telephone phone calls, in a similar manner to using an Internet search engine.

The technology, called "Semantic Forests", is a software program that analyses voice transcripts [...].

WE regret that by letter dated Tuesday, December 12, 2000 a Ms. Louise Hayman, the head of legal services at The Independent newspaper, requested that this article be removed from this website. We have adjusted the masthead accordingly.