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--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector-Government computer surveillance rings alarm bells
Privacy experts fear the effort could infringe on civil libertiesNews Story by Andy Sullivan
MAY 27, 2004(REUTERS) - Nine months after Congress shut down a controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance program, the U.S. government continues to comb private records to sniff out suspicious activity, according to a congressional report obtained by Reuters.Privacy concerns prompted Congress to kill the Pentagon's $54 million Total Information Awareness (TIA) program last September, but government computers are still scanning a vast array of databases for clues about criminal or terrorist activity, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has found.
Overall, 36 of the government's 199 data-mining efforts collect personal information from the private sector, a move experts say could violate civil liberties if left unchecked.
Several appear to be patterned after the TIA program, which critics said could have led to an Orwellian surveillance state in which citizens have little privacy.
"I believe that Total Information Awareness is continuing under other names, and the [Defense Department] projects listed here might fit that bill," said Peter Swire, an Ohio State University law professor who served as the Clinton administration's top privacy official.
Defense Department officials didn't respond to a request for comment.
Data mining software has been used by the government and private businesses for years to make sense of large amounts of information. Banks use data mining tools to sniff out possible credit card fraud, for example. Most government data mining projects aim to improve service or cut down on waste and fraud, the report said.
The U.S. Navy tracks each ship part ordered since 1980 to see which ones fail most frequently, while the Department of Education checks its student loan records against those held by the Social Security Administration to make sure it isn't loaning money to dead people.
Other projects raised red flags for privacy experts, however. The Pentagon agency that handled the TIA program isn't working on any data mining projects, but another agency is mining intelligence reports and Internet searches "to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities," the report said.
That description prompted the Electronic Privacy Information Center's general counsel, David Sobel, to file a Freedom of Information Act request to find out more about the project. "Congress now needs to take a close look at ways to oversee and regulate the use of data mining technology within the government," he said.
Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) said he has asked the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, to examine some projects more closely. "The federal government collects and uses Americans' personal information and shares it with other agencies to an astonishing degree, raising serious privacy concerns," Akaka said in a statement.
The report shows that data mining can be a useful tool for the government, but safeguards should be put in place to ensure that information isn't abused, said Nuala O'Connor Kelly, chief privacy officer at the Department of Homeland Security.
Swire said the report didn't appear to list any Department of Justice programs that use information from data aggregators ChoicePoint Inc. and Acxiom Corp., even though the agency has signed contracts with those companies.
The Justice Department didn't return a call seeking comment.
The report also failed to note a planned airline passenger-screening system that has drawn widespread criticism from lawmakers and air travelers.
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,93463,00.html
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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
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