June 1, 2004

•  

  
  

  

  
  

  Government computer surveillance rings alarm bells

  
  

   News Story by Andy Sullivan
  
  MAY 27, 2004 (REUTERS) - Nine months after Congress shut down a controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance program, the U.S. government continues to comb private records to sniff out suspicious activity.

  
  

  Privacy concerns prompted Congress to kill the Pentagon's $54 million Total Information Awareness (TIA) program last September, but government computers are still scanning a vast array of databases for clues about criminal or terrorist activity, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has found.

  
  

  Overall, 36 of the government's 199 data-mining efforts collect personal information from the private sector, a move experts say could violate civil liberties if left unchecked. Several appear to be patterned after the TIA program.

  
  

   

  • 12:33 am
  • 1 Comment