A date sniffer is a device that plugs into an RS232 data line and watches the traffic for date information going by. It stores the date information along with a time stamp of when it occured.
Companies can then detect where date are flowing in their embedded systems.
This product was designed in response to a request by a power company needing a handle on where to look in their embedded systems. The product differs from a protocol analyzer in that it doesn't need to have a known pattern to trigger on. It is designed to be used by non-technical personnel. It will autobaud itself to the data stream and is easy to get set up. Once installed, it samples all the traffic going by and stores only those patterns that can be recognized as a date.