There is scant information on this currently but it appears that the Carnivore domestic spying program supposedly shelved by the FBI has yet again been reincarnated under a new program.
According to Wired.com's Threat Level blog, the FBI has received $233 million to fund a new spying program ominously called Going Dark.
FBI 2010 Budget Summary (warning - PDF)
The proposed 2010 Justice Department budget published last week reveals the development of a new FBI advanced electronic surveillance program dubbed "Going Dark." The program is being budgeted $233.9 million next year.
According to the published budget summary (.pdf), the program "supports the FBI’s electronic surveillance (ELSUR), intelligence collection and evidence gathering capabilities, as well as those of the greater Intelligence Community."
This is an intercept technology for internet tapping and again appears to trawl public databases based on theoretical matches / profiles :
The program is designed to help the agency address challenges with conducting surveillance over newish technologies, such as VoIP. The program is also doing research on automated link analysis to find connections between subjects of surveillance "and other investigative suspects."
Also from ABC News :
Asked about the program, Jim Dempsey with the Center for Democracy and Technology said, the "FBI has long been conducting research on new communications technologies. They complain about the difficulty of intercepting new technologies -- especially when they want weaker legal standards or more money -- but I think they have done a very good job of keeping up."
Like the National Security Agency, he continued, "their biggest challenge is not collection -- it is analysis -- they are drowning in data."
Obviously there are counter arguments to be made that the FBI needs the tools to be able to go investigate crimes performed in today's connected world, however, their track record has been a disgrace when it comes to respecting individual rights, and in particular, in their tendency to compile profile data on regular people with no connection to actual criminal records or activity.
My 2c - big brother is alive and well, clearly we need to rely on Congress to ensure this is kept in check as the Executive continues to give far too much leeway to federal agencies to spy on Americans.
Specifically, we need oversight over the development of these programs and specific audits focused on ensuring the rights of our citizenry are upheld.