Government Intrusion

Government Intrusion

I definitely think that we as civilians should be concerned about the Total Information Awareness program (TIA) (was later renamed the Terrorism Information Awareness Program) which is the main reason for the existence of the Information Office (IAO). The TIA was receiving the bulk of the IAO's funding budget. (TIARC) The Information Awareness Office's stated mission is to "imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness useful for preemption; national security warning; and national security decision making." In non-bureaucratic speak, the IAO's purpose is "developing new surveillance technologies in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks" (Markoff, New York Times). According to the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) where the IAO is based, the goal of the TIA system is to, "revolutionize the ability of the United States to detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists - and decipher their plans." (AP)

In simple terms, TIA is a new "data mining" computer system designed to gather pertinent personal information from multiple existing online databases, like those containing drivers license, vehicle registration and credit card data. In addition, TIA would constantly seek out new "innovative" sources of information, while employing computer algorithms designed to match personal information with terrorist profiles. The resulting output of TIA, "actionable intelligence" would, says DARPA, "enable the U.S. to take timely action to successfully preempt and defeat terrorist acts." (DARPA)

I do not believe that there is truly any way to stop this program, we can could try a mail campaign, however aside from our government suddenly deciding to be open with all their projects, which they will never do, and should not for security. I do firmly believe that this and other such projects were already under way long before we found out about them. My greatest concern is how all of the information gathered would be stored and used. The current administration may be true to their word and only use information gathered pertaining to terrorist activity, although what future administrations would chose to do with the data we can not be sure of.

A public outcry for privacy concerns was heard, ignored in the long run but heard. The TIA program was officially defunded in October of 2003, though the TIA's projects did not die there. "Several TIA projects continued to be funded under the classified annexes to the Defense and the Intelligence appropriation bills in 2003 and subsequently." (AP)

"Two cutting-edge computer projects designed to preserve the privacy of Americans were quietly killed while Congress was restricting Pentagon data-gathering research in a widely publicized effort to protect innocent citizens from futuristic anti-terrorism tools. This does leave me wondering as to who may be able to access this information now, and in the future. As a result, the government is quietly pressing ahead with research into high-powered computer data-mining technology