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Big Brother Expands to Wisconsin
(Ryan Singel, WiredNews, Mar 9 ,2004)
Even as states retreat from participating in a controversial interstate antiterrorism database that holds billions of records of ordinary Americans' activities, Wisconsin has decided to join the program. . . . The head of Wisconsin's division of criminal investigation, James R. Warren, signed on to join the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, on Feb. 11 . . . With access to the Matrix database, Wisconsin law enforcement officials can look up vast amounts of personal information culled from government and commercial databases. The information includes driver's license pictures, addresses, professional licenses, names of neighbors and relatives, and even domain-name registration filings and hunting licenses. . . . Originally, 13 states were involved in the information-sharing initiative, but only six of those states remain -- Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida. States joining the effort agree to regularly upload driver's license pictures and vehicle registrations to a central server in Florida, which is managed by Seisint, a private data-aggregation firm based in Boca Raton. . . . Originally, 13 states were involved in the information-sharing initiative, but only six of those states remain -- Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida. States joining the effort agree to regularly upload driver's license pictures and vehicle registrations to a central server in Florida, which is managed by Seisint, a private data-aggregation firm based in Boca Raton. . . . In return, state law enforcement agents are granted a number of licenses to query the system. Officers also get access to information derived from Seisint's proprietary database, which includes voter rolls, property records, website registrations, civil and criminal court records, phone number directories and financial filings. . . . Privacy advocates have criticized the system, saying it enables law enforcement officials to conduct electronic searches of citizens without any evidence of wrongdoing. . . . As the public sees what's going on, they realize this is an another incarnation of -- or at least something that smells like -- Total Information Awareness." . . . Total Information Awareness was an experimental program by an arm of the Pentagon that sought to create a massive government database that tapped into thousands of smaller databases run by government agencies and private companies. . . . Other states, including Iowa and North Carolina, are also said to be looking into joining the Matrix.

[COMMENT: Please use our "Search This Site" feature to find more stories about Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIPS) program.]

posted by Lorenzo 1:49 PM