ALERT: Total Information Awareness

Big Brother Comes to America!!

This may sound like science fiction, but Total Information Awareness (TIA) is a *real* threat to your civil liberties. TIA is a Defense Department project that is creating a range of technologies for a surveillance society. Here’s a taste of what it plans to do:

~ Expand Communications Surveillance Capabilities – TIA wants computers to look and listen for “interesting” information and patterns in our electronic communications (phone calls, e-mail, instant messaging, websites, etc.) using speech-to-text, language translation and text-mining technologies.

~ Link and Search All Public and Private Databases – TIA wants to build a virtual “meta-base” of information that would include everything from your child’s medical history to what groceries you buy. This would also be passively searched for patterns.

~ Biometric Identification – TIA proposes aggressive research into biometric surveillance technology like facial, iris, expression, and gait recognition. This technology would allow your movements to be tracked without your consent or knowledge.

If TIA continues, the government will effectively have wiretaps, dossiers, and tracking devices for every American citizen. But don’t worry, it’s headed by John Poindexter.

That’s right. In a head-shaking lack of institutional memory, TIA is brought to you by Admiral John Poindexter. You may remember him from such classics as “Iran-Contra Affair” and “Felony Conviction for Lying to Congress” (later overturned on a technicality). As Senator Charles Schumer said in a recent New York Daily News interview, “If we need a big brother, John Poindexter is the last guy on the list that I would choose.”

Currently, TIA is a proposed set of tools with no concrete policy guidelines. Nobody knows who will have the authority to use these tools, whether they will have to get a warrant, or who they will target.

Senators Dianne Feinstein and Daniel Inouye have recently called for increased scrutiny of TIA and promised to draft legislation freezing its funds pending a full review of the project. Tell Congress that snooping on American citizens like this is, well, un- American. Stop the TIA!

Here’s what you can do:

1. Urge Senator Orrin Hatch (likely to be the next Chair of the Judiciary Committee) to hold public hearings!
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2347

2. Tell Senator Ted Stevens (likely to be the next Chair of the Appropriations Committee) to cut TIA funding!
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2348

3. Join EFF!
http://www.eff.org/perl/join

source of article: http://www.eff.org/effector/HTML/effect15.38.html#II