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Florida's Version Of TIA May Spread To Other States
Annoying Cowwart writes "Looks like TIA is coming back, this time through the by-the States-but-all-together backdoor. Now called M.A.T.R.I.X. ('Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange'). See the
Washington Post article for details. I wonder: do they have to try hard to find such apt names for their projects or does it come naturally? (For German speakers, there is another article about this in Der Spiegel.)"
FYI, TIA = Total Information Awareness
The story poster should have been more specific...
The name was chosen somewhat whimsically by a Florida law enforcement officer, an agency official said
Psst.
You can already do the exact same search through the DMV.
During the DC sniper investigation, hundreds of people driving white vans were pulled over, searched and questioned. Thats how investigations work.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
In 1999, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI suspended information service contracts with an earlier Asher-run company because of concerns about his past, according to law enforcement sources. The Chicago Tribune reported in 1987 that court documents in a federal drug case said defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who identified Asher as a pilot and onetime smuggler, offered him as an informant.
Jennie Khoen, a spokeswoman for the Florida department, said yesterday that the agency knew about Asher's "history with drug smuggling," including his work as an informant. Moore said his department "knew about Mr. Asher's past."
Maybe Asher can watch the fox guarding the hen house while he's at it....
I would think that the witch hunt for white trucks and vans during the Washington Sniper hunt would have created a large enough negative response to this that every state legislator would recognize the idiocy of being able to list all owners of such vehicles within a 10 mile radius of an incident.
For those few who are not aware, the snipers were driving a blue Chevy Celebrity (large car) not a van or truck as initially indicated.
I will leave it to others to document the problems the initial reports caused for people who had vehicles that matched the initial descriptions.
-Rusty
You never know...
Acronym
Main Entry: acronym
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
Date: 1943
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term.
(emphasis mine).
M.A.T.R.I.X is not an acronym.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Guess who is developing this system ?
Seisint
guess who is the number 12 campaign contributer to the republicans ? who just got awarded
1.6million (with more to follow)
Seisint
enjoy because its not like anyone will do anything about it, oh except vote them in again
I won't join the ACLU because they seem rather keen on taking away my freedoms, such as the freedoms of my children to practice their religion in public places.
You got proof that the ACLU has tried to do that? I'd like to see it. We ARE talking about the same ACLU that stood up for a website the federal government claims incited a murder, right? The same ACLU that defended the KKK? I can believe they campaigned against kids being LED in prayer in public schools, but I highly doubt they tried to ban how they choose to express their faith.
Triv
I've done lots of privacy work, especially concerning driver's license privacy.
About a year and a half ago, a well known local school board member (known for being very troublesome to other school board members, but extremely well respected and liked by the voters in his community) had an article printed about him in the newspaper saying that he had two driver's licenses.
The question was, how did they find out he had two licenses, since license data is protected by both state and national law. Unless the DMV actually had decided to take action against him (which they had not) someone with access to the database must have called up the paper.
So I called him up, and he said a few days before the article came out, he and his daughter were pulled over. His daughter was driving, but they were in a rented car, so the officer wanted to see his license, because he rented the car. The officer recognized who he was, talked about their military records, and let them on their way. So the hypothesis was that this officer then scanned through the computer, and found the two licenses, and called up the newspaper--which is where the violation of law occurred.
(With regard to the two licenses, the person claimed that it was an error on the part of the DMV. The two records had two different SSNs.)
Anyway, so I did the obvious. Based on freedom of information act, we asked the DMV and the state highway patrol (who runs the computer that the cops use in this state) to give us the data on who accessed the license records and when (a simple record request.)
The DMV cooperated immediately...and nothing of consequence there...they checked his license(s) records when the local newspaper called, to confirm whether or not he did have two licenses (an act which may have violated DPPA (driver's privacy protection act) but that hasn't been determined yet.)
The state highway patrol said that they didn't have to give up their records. Well, I checked through everything I could, but I couldn't find a single place which gave them that authority (though they claimed it.) They said they would perform an internal investigation, and give us the results of that investigation, but would redact the information concerning whom actually looked at his license(s) records.
The story ends there, more or less. The school board member decided that this issue wasn't worth pursuing, given time and resources. And he felt that he already caused enough trouble.
(Actually the story ends this way...two agents of the DMV came to his house and told him that if he gives up the two licenses, they will just reissue him one license at the DMV and that will be that. I don't need to tell you that this is pretty irregular behavior by the DMV (they didn't even charge him) but even with all the time I spend researching the DMV, I can't figure out why they did it.)
I guess the point is, the ability to get auditing records of such a database is vital for making sure it's being used correctly. When a state agency refuses to give up auditing records on yourself, it implies that a need for greater oversight on how they operate.
(My signature talks about my current driver's license privacy project in New Jersey...I wanted yall to know that it didn't happen in NJ, but in Ohio.)
It's the Democrats who come up with most of the IP legislation. Clinton was "tough on crime" and promised to double the police force. He also signed the CDA, COPA, CIPA, DMCA, and Digital Millenium act. Remember the Clipper chip?
The only difference is in what they say. I care more about what they do.
They will get it wrong, it's a certainty. I work for the State of Florida and deal with FDLE every day, and like any other cops they're not above harassment, vendettas, and abuse of power. More dangerously, some of the techs and investigators are just not all that bright. The law enforcement databases that are being pulled together are chock full of erroneous information. The clerks who enter the data don't make a living wage and there's a high turnover, so the quality of data entry is very low. Those who work in law enforcement are aware of this, but it's very hard to challenge something once it's in there, and they like it that way. If you know someone it helps.
What's most fascinating to me is the bit about "commercially available databases" being included as well. Does this include your credit card receipts? How about the data collected by your supermarket discount card?
PS for the Non-Americans out there . . . I know the development of the culture of surveillance might be disturbing to you, but all we want is to be on reality TV. The Bush administration understands this deep-seated human need and is doing all they can to get us all on camera.
Innocent schmuck in Florida, who was dangerously close to help elect a Democratic president: DE-nied.
When the Federal Election Commission met to investigate the Florida election, they couldn't find a single person that was actually prevented from voting because they were erroneously identified as a felon (Source).
On the other hand, when the Miami Herald researched the issue, they concluded that the biggest problem with the felon list was that it allowed too many ineligible felons to vote (about 6,500 ineligible felons ended up voting in the election).
"The defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom" - George W Bush