[infowar.de] WP und NYT ueber data sweep-Programm des Pentagon

["Dr. Martin Kahl" <mwkahl -! - muenster - de>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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[Auszug]
Pentagon Details New Surveillance System
Critics Fear Proposed Extensive Use of Computer Database Raises Privacy Issues

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17121-2003May20?language=printer


By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 21, 2003; Page A06

The Pentagon yesterday detailed the development of a massive computer 
surveillance system that would have the power to track people as never before.

It would identify people at great distances by the irises of their eyes, the grooves in 
their face or even their gait. It would look for suspicious patterns in video footage of 
people's movements. And it would analyze airline ticket purchases, visa applications, 
as well as financial, medical, educational and biometric records to try to predict 
terrorists' acts or catch them in the planning stage.

The technology does not yet exist, and no one knows whether its creation is even 
possible. Indeed, the very concept of what was originally known as the government's 
Total Information Awareness initiative raised so many privacy and civil liberties 
issues that, in February, Congress banned its deployment. Legislators asked for 
more information about the project and sought an analysis about how citizens' 
privacy would be balanced with the need for security.

The report that was delivered to legislators yesterday identifies the effort by a new 
name -- the Terrorist Information Awareness program. It sought to allay concerns 
about privacy by outlining policies to conduct spot audits of the data being collected 
and implementing technical safeguards.

"The program's previous name, 'Total Information Awareness' program, created in 
some minds the impression that TIA was a system to be used for developing dossiers 
on U.S. citizens," the Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research 
Project Agency, said in a statement. "DoD's purpose in pursuing these efforts is to 
protect U.S. citizens by detecting and defeating foreign terrorist threats before an 
attack." [...]

Ein weiterer Bericht ueber das System in der NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/21/international/worldspecial/21PRIV.html

New Name of Pentagon Data Sweep Focuses on Terror
By ADAM CLYMER

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