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General discussion

Privacy safeguards killed, but data-mining projects continue

Mar 15, 2004 4:17AM PST

Discussion is locked

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Congressional meddling at it again.......
Mar 15, 2004 7:19AM PST

First, they authorize, and fund, a multi-part project.

Then they cancel part of the project, and transfer the rest to another agency.

And now, they wonder where all the parts are, and what they're doing.

Like most government projects that the Congress attempts to micro-manage, probably no one knows for sure.

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Re: At it again -- how about Military trying to evade civilian control again?
Mar 15, 2004 1:10PM PST

Surely you remember Iran-Contra, Col. North et al., Del. Oh, that's right -- y'all consider them "patriots," rather than oath-breakers. But at least no one found proof Ollie and Fawn were getting it on...

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Re:Re: At it again -- how about Military trying to evade civilian control again?
Mar 15, 2004 2:10PM PST

Maybe military is trying to get what the want, but from your link

Two cutting-edge computer projects designed to preserve the privacy of Americans were quietly killed while Congress was restricting Pentagon data-gathering research in a widely publicized effort to protect innocent citizens from futuristic anti-terrorism tools.

And further down

The research sponsored by ARDA, called Novel Intelligence from Massive Data, is so similar to some work done for Poindexter that Lunt offered to adapt her privacy protection software. ARDA and other agencies weren't interested because Congress had killed the original projects.

"When I went to talk to them, ARDA made clear they don't want to get into any area Congress doesn't want to fund," Lunt said.


So while the agencies are trying to skirt the law, both parties bear their share of the blame in the way Congress dealt with reapportioning the work without the original safe guards.

I think you'll find that military and spooks of any poltical leanings tend to want more than we might want them to have.

RogerNC

click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

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Re:Re:Re: At it again -- how about Military trying to evade civilian control again?
Mar 15, 2004 3:36PM PST

Hi Roger,

Don't add fact to a good smear.