- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The
U.S. government has discovered a powerful resource in its war against terrorism
-- credit-card records, hotel bills, grocery lists and other records detailing
the private lives of its citizens.
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- Government investigators are turning to commercial databases
to track down and isolate possible hijackers and suicide bombers before
they strike, raising fear among privacy advocates that long-standing protections
against government snooping may be eroded.
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- The Transportation Security Administration is developing
an airline passenger-screening program that would check private records
such as credit reports to assess risk, prompting a fierce debate about
the merits of such "pattern recognition" systems.
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- Officials and many security experts say such data mining
techniques are necessary to flush out a foe that does not wear a uniform
but blends in with ordinary civilians to infiltrate and undermine American
society.
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- Civil-liberties advocates on the left and the right say
the tactic could lead back to the bad old days when law-enforcement agencies
like the FBI conducted routine, unfettered surveillance on law-abiding
citizens like civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
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- "People in the government, very much so in the Justice
Department, have been playing out a lust for information that is not consistent
with who we have been as a nation," former Republican House Majority
Leader Dick Armey said recently.
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- The connection between private and government surveillance
is likely to be a hot topic as computer scientists, policy experts and
government officials meet this week in New York at the 13th annual Computers,
Freedom and Privacy conference.
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- Congress has imposed limits on one particularly controversial
Defense Department program, but few doubt that investigators will increasingly
rely on pattern-recognition techniques and private business records in
their efforts to root out extremists. A range of laws limits how government
can collect and use information on its citizens. Tax returns and census
data are protected from misuse by stiff criminal penalties, while the Privacy
Act of 1974 prevents agencies from indiscriminately passing around Social
Security records or other personal data. Law-enforcement agencies must
get court approval before monitoring phone conversations or e-mail messages.
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- The private sector, by contrast, operates under fewer
restrictions.
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- Grocery stores offer discounts for shoppers who allow
them to track their purchases, while credit bureaus gather consumer financial
records so lenders can determine whether a borrower is likely to keep up
with mortgage payments.
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- Online retailers tracking customer browsing and purchasing
habits have added to the warehouse of personal information.
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- Following the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacking attacks, law
enforcement agents subpoenaed many of these private databases in a bid
to flush out al Qaeda members, said Stewart Baker, a Washington lawyer
who formerly served as general counsel to the National Security Agency.
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- In the process, they have gathered records of people
who are not suspects, he said. "Once they get it they like to keep
it, because you never know when it might turn out to be useful."
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- Other pattern-recognition projects such as TSA's passenger
screening program are able to sidestep privacy laws because they do not
actually collect information but rely on outside databases to reach a decision,
experts say. TSA officials have declined to say how they will determine
whether a passenger should be allowed on an airplane or singled out for
arrest, saying that would allow extremists to alter their behavior to avoid
detection.
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- The agency has met with privacy experts as it designs
the system, and promises that government employees will never see personal
data.
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- But innocent people could be harassed or detained if
security screeners rely on faulty data, the experts say.
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- Several travelers have already been kept off planes because
they have the same name as someone on government watch lists, according
to complaints obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
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- Data mining systems work well if set up properly, said
Terry Pittman, a privacy consultant who helped develop marketing systems
throughout the 1990s. Those that have failed in the private sector did
so because their sponsors ran out of money -- not a likely problem for
the government, he said.
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