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Thirty-Three States Contributed to the MATRIX

Posted by michael on from the room-101 dept.

lexbaby writes "The Salt Lake Tribune has an article claiming that at least 33 states have released government and commercial records on residents to the controversial MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) network instead of the originally claimed 13." Don't worry, there's plenty of RAM for all 50 and the territories too.

6 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. Avoiding trouble in the first place... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    With this in mind, here are tips to help you avoid being labeled a terrorist:

    Mouth shut, eyes forward, do what you're told. Don't question authority.

    Smile for the cameras. They're everywhere and they're watching you.

    Secure all zippers, buttons, tie clips, etc. Wardrobe Malfunction isn't funny anymore, it's subversive.

    Turn in your neighbors on the slightest hint they're trouble makers. You won't get a pair a blue jeans, but you help keep your country safe.

    Pokemon: Catch 'em all, otherwise you never know where they are or what they are up to.

    Cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing to avoid Germ Warfare Terrorist label.

    Vote for the most patriotic sounding politician, no matter what their platform.

    Remember, we're all in this together.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Avoiding trouble in the first place... by Dalcius · · Score: 5, Insightful

      WAR IS PEACE
      FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
      IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

      Please board the nearest transportation to the Ministry of Love, they are waiting to see you.

      --
      ~Dalcius
      Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
    2. Re:Avoiding trouble in the first place... by ciggieposeur · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Damn, I lost my chance to moderate just to say:

      "Fuck you."

      Nobody is forcing you to stay in America if you don't like it. America, love it or leave it fscker.

      You want to pay for my moving expenses? You want to lobby a foreign government on my behalf to grant me a visa to stay in that country?

      No? Well OK then, go shut the fuck up.

      There's LOTS of people forcing me to stay in America: my creditors, American politicians, foreign politicians, my parents, my wife's family, better-educated-than-American European citizens, poor foreign workers who don't want me to have one of the few jobs in their neck of the world. You Mr Anonymous Coward are a nitwitted dumbass who obviously has had no direct contract with foreign cultures if you think any old middle-class American family with a beef against the government can just pick up and leave. Shit I can't even get into Mexico to work at a sweatshop.

      Let me also point out the American idea that we vote for our own government misleaders, hence the government is "by the people, for the people". When you defend a totalitarian government, you point out to the entire world that you don't know shit from squat about the idealistic American Dream, and that it's YOU who don't belong here. If you had given any clue that you knew what the hell you were talking about you might have appeared to be one of the minority of Americans who know the actual brutal history of the country and the struggle of its people to create a real democracy despite the government. But you're obviously not one of those people, so again Fuck You for being a dumbass who believes in the thin blue line and will vote for the creation of a despotism in the land *I* call home.

      YOU are the non-American here, and your First Amendment right to ignorant speech ends at my property line in rural Texas. Actually not too far from the place a few ATF agents upholding a corrupt regime got their lives terminated in self-defense by some religious nuts in 1993.

      Do you Mr Anonymous Coward want me to leave America? I invite you to try and kick me out. You'll need lots of bullets.

  2. Adding injury to insult... by amigoro · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Billions of records: The trouble with MATRIX, said Calbrese, is the volume of data it contains, much of which was purchased unbeknown to states by Seisint Inc. Seisint is the Florida information-technology company that developed the idea for MATRIX and landed a $1.6 million contract with that state's Department of Law Enforcement to pilot it.

    I am guessing Mr. Ashcroft pay this out of his own pcoket. So this tax payer's money.

    Is this going to make you any safer? Doubtful.
    Is this going to make you poorer? Yes, Indirectly.
    Is this going to make Seisinit richer? Sure.
    Is this going to violate your privacy? Most Definitely.

    So you are basically paying Seisinit to take away your privacy. This is a bit like this story here. But that one is a bit more believable.

    --


    Nothing to see here
  3. The MATRIX by Vexware · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Enough with the MATRIX puns, look at the issue seriously. I live in France and had never heard of this project before, but it sure looks scary, or at least, the government not saying everything about it is.

    Can be read in the article: "We don't want our information floating out there when we don't know what's on the database or who has access to it," said Sen. Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park. It seems the people actually involved in this do not know very much what information will be withheld, let alone the people whose information is withheld. I mean, how can you be sure what you're being told is the truth when you see that the people involved with the project do not know that much about it themselves?

    The representatives say that the MATRIX is just a way of accessing individuals' information faster, but I don't really see how this could help them to predict where and when the next terrorist attack will be -- it will only really help them once the acts are actually done, I should think.

    I'm not stating that the government are surely up to something dodgy here, and after all, perhaps they might not be lying when they say that this will allow them to get hold of currently available information faster. But I just cannot read this without an ounce of doubt that a few privacy breaches might help them to fulfill their task.

    --
    "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect" -- Linus Torval
  4. Re:Fear Sells. by Chiron+Taltos · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This will sound cold, but I'd take the few hundred people dead.

    I don't believe we should surrender our civil liberties just because there are people out there willing to kill us. There have ALWAYS been people out there willing to kill us.

    French (French & Indian War)
    English (American Revolution, War of 1812)
    Ourselves (U.S. Civil War)
    Japanese (World War II)

    Why, now, is it okay to abuse our civil liberties?

    --
    CT