American Privacy at Risk: HOMELAND SECURITY ACT

The HOMELAND SECURITY ACT before the Senate MUST BE AMENDED TO DISALLOW THE "TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS" super database system as proposed by John Poindexter of the Information Awareness Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

To quote William Safire of the New York Times:


Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend - all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."

To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you - passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance - and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.

This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks.
The combined force of commercial snooping and secret government intrusion endorsed by the Act as currently written would crush the delicate balance of personal privacy and freedom cherished by every US citizen.

IT MUST BE AMENDED TO SAFEGUARD OUR PERSONAL PRIVACY BEFORE IT COMES TO A VOTE.

Thank you in advance for your service in support of America's precious ideals.


Link to Article quoted above:

OPINION | November 14, 2002
You Are a Suspect
By WILLIAM SAFIRE (NYT) Op-Ed (Free, but registration required)

Further Background:

WASHINGTON | November 9, 2002
Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans
By JOHN MARKOFF (NYT) News (Free, but registration required)

WASHINGTON | November 12, 2002
U.S. Hopes to Check Computers Globally
By ROBERT O'HARROW JR. (Washington Post) Page A04 (Free)

US Government:

Information Awareness Office Website
Total Information Awareness (TIA) System
Explication with flow chart graphics



To readers of this petition: Here is the text of the email I sent to my Senators. Feel free to use it, cut/paste, or as a starting point for your own statement. Here is a link to an Online Contact List of ALL Senators.

The HOMELAND SECURITY ACT before the Senate MUST BE AMENDED TO DISALLOW THE "TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS" super database system as proposed by John Poindexter of the Information Awareness Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The combined force of commercial snooping and secret government intrusion endorsed by the Act as currently written would crush the delicate balance of personal privacy and freedom cherished by every US citizen.

IT MUST BE AMENDED TO SAFEGUARD OUR PERSONAL PRIVACY BEFORE IT COMES TO A VOTE.

I trust that you will do everything in your power to persuade your colleagues to this view. Thanking you in advance for your service in support of America's precious ideals, I am