May 30, 2003 ACLU Urges Continued Oversight of Pentagon's Cyber-Surveillance System A SNOOP BY ANY OTHER NAME . . . Renaming the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program to Terrorist Information Awareness, the Pentagon recently released a congressionally mandated report on the threat to privacy rights and potential ineffectiveness of the broadly criticized TIA cyber-surveillance system. In response, the ACLU and other concerned groups from across the political spectrum pointed out that many privacy concerns have not been addressed and urged Congress to continue its vigorous oversight of new government spying powers and technologies. The Pentagon's report was mandated under legislation sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) that required the Pentagon to release a report within 90 days dealing with the threats posed by TIA to privacy rights and civil liberties and concerns that the system would be practically unusable. Technically, TIA would use "data-mining" and complex, ever-shifting mathematical formulae to sift through highly personal information in databases around the world in what many say is a vain quest to effectively create a high-tech crystal ball. The ACLU put together its own report asking critical questions about TIA, many of which were not answered in the Pentagon's report. Among them: how can TIA be effective with such a high false positive rate deflecting scrutiny away from real terrorists? Is current technology is up to the task demanded of TIA? Will TIA mirror the evolution of other bureaucracies and drastically outpace its initial mandate -- eating up more and more resources and furthering the systematic surveillance of everyday Americans? Even if TIA is kept on a short leash, the ACLU asked, would that make a difference in how Americans are affected by the implementation of a seemingly omni-present surveillance apparatus? Joining Hawaii, the Alaska and Vermont legislatures have adopted anti-USA PATRIOT Act resolutions in recent days, becoming the second and third states to criticize the federal government's controversial USA PATRIOT Act. In what is becoming an avalanche, 115 city, county or state jurisdictions around the country have adopted anti-PATRIOT resolutions. More than 14 million Americans are now covered by these resolutions. The Alaska resolution is particularly strong, explicitly prohibiting state agencies from engaging in racial profiling and prohibiting the use of state resources or institutions for the enforcement of federal immigration matters. It also bars state agencies from creating intelligence dossiers on the political, religious and social views of individuals and organizations, unless the information directly relates to a criminal investigation. Read the ACLU's report on the TIA program: http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12650&c=206&MX=815&H=1 Look at the ACLU's online feature on the TIA Program: http://www.aclu.org/privacy/Privacylist.cfm?c=130&MX=815&H=1 American Civil Liberties Union 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor New York, New York 10004-2400 ========== HURIDOCS-Tech listserv ========== Send mail intended for the list to <huridocs-tech@hrea.org>. Archives of the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/maillist.php To subscribe to the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>, with the following text in the message: subscribe huridocs-tech To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>, with the following text in the message: unsubscribe huridocs-tech If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.
[Reply to this message] [Start a new topic] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index] [Subject Index] [List Home Page] [HREA Home Page]