Entry 11 - CarnivorePE

( http://www.rhizome.org/carnivore ~ New Media Art p.78 )

In the 90s, the United States FBI created a program called Carnivore which sniffed traffic on the internet through the servers of internet service providers, allowing agents to eavesdrop on the online activities of ordinary citizens. In 2000, Alex Galloway created a response program called CarnivorePE; PE standing for Personal Edition. This program would record the traffic on the networks of computers it was installed on. However, rather than using this data for eavesdropping, it instead uses it as raw material for artistic interfaces.

This is interesting to me because it is using the same concept of taking the data of others without permission, as the FBI's program, but in this case is ultimately giving. To me it acts as a critique on the actions that governments make to harm and take away privacy from its people. It allows for the data to be used in the clients of others to create unique art with no personal information being stolen.