This week, the FBI issued a court order, citing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and demanding specific information concerning selected subscribers to America Online and EarthLink, the country's two largest Internet service providers. On Tuesday, shortly after news of the destruction of the World Trade Center began to spread, the operators of the MagusNet Public Proxy Server, an "anonymous remailer" designed to provide security for Internet e-mail and other online communiqués, voluntarily shut down to prevent the system's being abused by terrorists (or pranksters). Meanwhile, a congressman called for a global ban on all encryption software that failed to include a "backdoor" allowing government surveillance, and a senator tacked an amendment onto an appropriations bill that would make wiretapping considerably easier. Privacy advocates and civil libertarians are perpetually on guard, but after Tuesday's deadly airline hijackings, they are faced with a new and potent enemy -- public fear. Will a Congress desperate to do something in response to the horrifying carnage sweep in a slew of unprecedented restrictions on personal freedoms? The outcry of protest has already begun. [...] http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/09/14/privacy/index.html