Stop the American Government’s Plan to Mine Citizens’ Privacy
January 21, 2003
Recent media reports have revealed that a little-known Defense Department office is developing a computer system called “Total Information Awareness” that threatens to turn us all into “suspects” without proof of criminal wrongdoing.
The system, which includes an advanced form of “data-mining,” would effectively provide government officials with immediate access to our personal information such as all of our communications (phone calls, emails and web searches), financial records, purchases, prescriptions, school records, medical records and travel history. Under this program, our entire lives would be catalogued and available to government officials.
To combat this alarming initiative, Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) has introduced new legislation called “The Data-Mining Moratorium Act” (S. 188). The bill would impose a moratorium on data-mining under the Total Information Awareness program of the Department of Defense and any similar program of the Department of Homeland Security until Congress authorizes such activity. It also requires a report to Congress on TIA and other data mining activities. Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is expected to introduced similar legislation in the house.
While the proponents of Total Information Awareness have argued that such snooping should be accepted as part of the “War on Terrorism,” it is clear that this proposal goes too far. While running for the presidency, George W. Bush said that he wanted to defend individual privacy. Yet the Defense Department program makes a mockery of such privacy protections and threatens to bulldoze the judicial and Congressional restraints that have protected the public against domestic spying.
Urge your Senators to Support and Cosponsor the Data-Mining Moratorium Act!
More information on the the Pentagon’s “Total Information Awareness” Program
can be found here