Pentagon Soft-Pedals Total Information Awareness

PizzaFace writes "Congress was concerned that the Pentagon's 'Total Information Awareness' program would invade citizens' privacy, so it gave the program the red light until the Pentagon addressed Congress's privacy concerns. DARPA, the Pentagon technology agency that brought us the Internet in more innocent times, showed its Total Marketing Awareness by renaming the TIA program, 'Terrorism Information Awareness.' The gist of its report seems to be that data may be collected from everyone, but it will only be used against evildoers. You can read DARPA's report and a background story from the Washington Post."

Comments

Innocent times?

[Burb]

DARPA, the Pentagon technology agency that brought us the Internet in more innocent times

What more innocent times were these, exactly?

Re:Innocent times?

[kahei]

Innocent times like the good ol' 50s, when you could be hounded out of the country for showing communist tendencies! Or like the 30s, when you could be framed and executed (or just beaten to death with pick handles) if you were suspected of encouraging labor rights! Or like the 19th century, when you could eliminate any random bunch of Mexicans or Native Americans cause hey, they're in the way! (doesn't work on Canadians, though).

Good ol' innocent happy days!

(waves stars and stripes, plays 'yankee doodle' on a kazoo)

Re:Innocent times?

[kahei]

Guilty conscience, huh?

name change

[tankdilla]

Changing that T to Terrorism was brilliant. I'd forgotten for a minute that they were about to totally invade privacy. Cuz we gotta fight terrorism right, and anyone who opposes is probably a terrorist and all. They could do better though, and change it to Patriot Information Awareness, or Patriot Act II. That has a nice ring doesn't it.

Re:name change

[archeopterix]

They could do better though, and change it to Patriot Information Awareness, or Patriot Act II. That has a nice ring doesn't it.

I suggest Patriotic Antiterrorist Warm and Fuzzy Information Program For Protecting the Children.

Ministry of Silly Walks

[cmason32]

An editorial in today's NY Times notes that one of the ways the TIA will track people is by their walk. Observantly, Dowd parallels this to Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks. Apparently, this method of detection can be overridden by wearing a long coat.

I feel safer already.

Re:The State..

[jkrise]

"it's the State who will define who an "evildoer""

No need. The State can define a new term 'Potnetial Terrorist' and we'd all be included - in effect it becomes Total Info Awareness. Sometime back I posted a series of definitions that could be used:

Potential Terrorist - All of us.
Kinetic terrorist - Mobile phone users.
Intellectual terrorists - Reverse-engineers
Organised potential terrorists - Linux User Groups
e-terrorists - internet users

and so on... No need to be bashful before ordering surveillance on all and sundry.

Re:shades of Iraq

[comet_11]

Yeah, what kind of country would store masses of weapons and threaten foreign nations with violence while imposing a police-state style military control on its own citizens?

Lucky we're nothing like those bastard Iraqis.

Re:Only used against 'terrorists'

[fishbert42]

"A witch! A witch! We've found a witch!"
"We have found a witch. May we burn her?"
"Burn her! Buuuuuurn her!"
"How do you know she is a witch?"
"She looks like one!"