Rob asks: > Suppose there was a way to place an intercept on the Web data stream, > perhaps on routers or switches along the transmission path. These comments should of course be preceded by the "IANAL" disclaimer (I Am Not A Lawyer), though personally I've always felt that the sense of that acronym is backwards. > Would this be illegal? God only knows. Why don't you try it and let us know what happens to you :-) > Given the borderless nature of the Internet, who could possibly > regulate and prevent this activity? Regulation is tough, I think, because of the international nature of the net. Prevention is easy. If someone started doing this, the whole world would switch to end-to-end authentication on all web transactions so fast it would make your head spin. There are easy technical solutions (the existing SSL protocols being one of them) that would prevent people from doing this sort of thing. G.