Do you have concerns about the growing database called MATRIX, a federally-funded program that walks, talks and quacks like TIA, the DARPA system that was supposedly de-activated last year? Today on the radio, I heard a program about this "under-reported" story. The best links found are below, with more added in the file link on this controversial and very dangerous project that works so very well with the Patriot Acts.

Documents Acquired By ACLU Prove That MATRIX is a Data Mining Program (01/21/2004)

NEW YORK--New documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union prove that data mining is at the heart of the controversial MATRIX police database system and reveal that the federal authorities have been deeply involved in developing the state-run effort to spy on citizens.

http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=14763&c=130
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Matrix Shares Crime Data
All Things Considered audio
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1608129

NPR's Larry Abramson reports on a system that allows a number of states to share their criminal databases, and link it with other public information. The Matrix system has drawn criticism from privacy advocates, who say it's just like the Pentagon's controversial and discontinued Total Information Awareness project.

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http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/webfeatures/2003/12/blumenthal-m-12-19.html
The American Prospect
(BTW, this is one of the best liberal/progressive magazines I've seen - check your library for this.)

Data Debase

The powerful technology known as data mining -- and how, in the government's hands, it could become a civil libertarian's nightmare.

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To provide good access to a variety of organizations and sites that have webpages on this topic, I will be posting a link to a text-only file with more complete information than should be copied straight into abuzz posts.

If you are unfamiliar with the MATRIX (and I do not mean the cool movie series), please take a gander at the three links provided in the opening of this blog entry. This is truly an "under-reported" story, as many have characterized it.

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The following is a 48k text file with portions of a number of webpages and articles. Download, copy and read at your leisure. Powerful stuff! Note also that the International Conference of SIAM is coming up in April. SIAM is an organization that leads the world in data mining, a "new" technology that is changing our world.
http://www.sharemation.com/cobalt123/MATRIXfilesTIA.txt

Quick points: The Matrix database does not allow for corrections of inaccurate data. Think about all the errors in credit reports and now multiply this by millions of entries that exceed by far reporting data only from the financial histories of people.

At present, if a law enforcement staff types merely a name, the return will be complete life history of recorded documentation from birth to immunizations and job history, degrees, assets,tax records, even fingerprints if ever recorded. There is not intent to modify or change "information" retrieved. This is potential for enormous invasions of privacy legal now under Patriot Act that does not require a reason other than "Possible terrorism activities".

Think about the damage and the intrusions possible. Pretty easy to add folks to the No Fly lists, like the reporter who commented "Bush is dumb", was quoted in a memo, and now is restricted from all flight unless cleared each trip by DARPA.

This is a very sophistacated version of Big Brother, in which information collection is decentralized to the point that now one will know who "contributed" information. Much more efficient than days in East Germany when the government relied on half the citizens to inform on all.

The other key issue is "data mining": this applied mathmatics and technology allows "profiling" to determine many things, such as "risk" for a person to potentially commit a crime. Remember the Tom Cruise movie last year, "The Minority Report"? People could be arrested for a crime that it was predicted they might commit. People WILL BE monitored and worse for specious reasons.

Data mining is an amazing field of study. Look at the file link for more explanation. Truly a "booming" field, and quite international. I looked at the list of International Conference 2004 program members, and read their affiliations with universities and with corporations. Whoa Nelly!