Briefs

From IDG News Service (03/25/03); Gross, Grant

An alliance of privacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center fired off a letter to Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Tom Davis (R-Va.), advising Congress to halt the second version of the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) program until its effectiveness and privacy implications are thoroughly researched. The proposed federal database of airline-passenger profiles, along with the Total Information Access project, employ data mining so that government officials can monitor persons' movements for suspicious activities--and both are examples of "mass dataveillance" George Washington University law professor Jeffrey Rosen described as unconstitutional at a Tuesday hearing of the Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations, and the Census. Rosen told attendees that data-mining technologies can be designed to balance liberty and security, and urged Congress to take the matter under consideration.

However, House Committee on Government Reform Chairman Davis cautioned against federal over-regulation of data mining, to which Rosen suggested that the congressman think about whether data sharing between national agencies would carry the same benefits as it does for private industry. Meanwhile, witnesses at the hearing noted the positive value of certain data-mining programs. Sen. Paula Dockery (R-Fla.) cited her state's initiative to use data analysis to build profiles of suspected criminals, and Gregory Kutz of the U.S. General Accounting Office said data mining has helped his agency identify federal employees using office credit cards to make personal purchases.

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