Friday, in a New Jersey courtroom, the FBI is scheduled to deliver a secret report detailing a new way it uses to spy on American citizens behind their backs. The dispute is technical, involving a way to track a computer's every keystroke.. . .
Friday, in a New Jersey courtroom, the FBI is scheduled to deliver a secret report detailing a new way it uses to spy on American citizens behind their backs. The dispute is technical, involving a way to track a computer's every keystroke. The defendant is unsympathetic, the son of a convicted Philadelphia mob boss who stands accused of running a loan-sharking and gambling business.

But a decision in favor of the FBI's secrecy stance would have far-reaching consequences -- not only putting regular users' Internet privacy at risk, but also setting a precedent that could allow the FBI to act with impunity in future disputes over newly devised surveillance methods.

The issue arose after agents, armed with a judge's OK, installed the FBI's new keystroke-monitoring device on the computer of Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr., thereby obtaining the password needed to track information on gambling and loan operations.

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