Pubdate: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, The (US) Copyright: 2000 by The Chronicle of Higher Education Contact: http://chronicle.com/ Author: Andrea L. Foster RENO WIDENS SEARCH FOR UNIVERSITY TO REVIEW FBI'S SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM Attorney General Janet Reno announced Wednesday that the Justice Department will broaden the search for a university to serve as the official reviewer of Carnivore, a controversial electronic-surveillance system. Earlier this month Assistant Attorney General Stephen Colgate, who will oversee the university review of Carnivore, said the Justice Department would choose an institution from a list of about 10. The institution will study the system to see that it works as planned and is not overly intrusive. Ms. Reno had been expected to name the university this week. But instead she said that the search would be widened and the announcement would be delayed until September 15 in order to "make the selection as fair and equitable as possible." The Federal Bureau of Investigation uses Carnivore to intercept millions of e-mail messages every second. It says it reads only the messages going to and from suspected criminals, but many privacy experts warn that Carnivore may also snatch messages from innocent people. At her weekly press briefing here Wednesday, Ms. Reno said the department would post on its Web site at 5 p.m. today the tasks it expects the chosen university to fulfill, so that any institution may apply. The standards will be online for 10 business days, and then within two days the department's Carnivore review team will recommend a university to Ms. Reno. "This process ensures a level playing field amongst all the universities that have expressed an interest, and ensures a greater openness and understanding of the task we are requesting the university to undertake," Ms. Reno said. Asked if the department was being inundated with inquiries from interested universities, Ms. Reno referred the question to her spokeswoman, who declined comment. Ms. Reno said the department still expects the selected university to complete its review of Carnivore by December 1. Mr. Colgate acknowledged earlier this month that the department had contacted the University of California at San Diego about participating in the project. He declined to name other universities the department was considering. Despite widespread interest in participating in the Carnivore review, there are risks for the chosen university, says Jim Severson, president of the Association of University Technology Managers. Suppose that university is seeking federal money for some project unaffiliated with Carnivore, he says. People are going to ask whether the institution gave a positive spin on Carnivore to boost its chances of garnering federal money. "Even if it's an objective and arms-length report," he says, there will always be some people who will be skeptical of it. - --- MAP posted-by: John Chase