- NEW YORK (AP) -- A federally
funded crime database run by seven states is looking increasingly to privacy
advocates like a potent substitute for the data-mining program the Pentagon
scrapped after public rebuke.
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- Law enforcement officials and the private company that
manages the database, known as Matrix, say it merely streamlines police
access to information about suspects that authorities have long been able
to get from disparate sources.
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- But newly emerging facts about the program, including
documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, indicate it could
also be made to sift through vast stores of Americans' personal data -
some 20 billion records - and proactively finger crime and terrorism suspects.
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- Combining state records with databases owned by Seisint
Inc., Matrix details - among other things - the property, boats and Internet
domains people own, their address history, utility connections, bankruptcies,
liens and business filings, according to an August report by the Georgia
state Office of Homeland Security.
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- The report, which was once posted on a state Web site,
offers a broader glimpse of Matrix - short for the Multistate Anti-Terrorism
Information Exchange - than its guardians are generally willing to make
public.
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- "This is a major program with very large ambitions,
and it needs to be publicly examined. We shouldn't be forced to read tea
leaves," said Barry Steinhardt, who heads the ACLU's technology and
liberty program.
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- The August report touts Matrix's ability to display information
quickly, along with pictures of some people on file, and perform analysis:
"The user can easily see relationships between people, places and
things that were previously impossible to discern."
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- "With minimal input and the push of a button, witnesses,
associates, relatives and suspects can be identified and located,"
adds the report, which was cited in a December Supreme Court filing by
the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
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- References to Matrix's analysis capabilities also emerged
in documents obtained by the ACLU under the open-records law in Pennsylvania,
one of the participating states.
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- Among the files were two 2003 memorandums of understanding
between Pennsylvania officials and Florida police that discussed how Matrix
would be used for both criminal investigations and "intelligence purposes."
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- Also, the minutes of an October 2002 planning meeting
attended by representatives of 12 states, the FBI and Seisint reveal new
details about the involvement of the federal government, which seeded Matrix
with $12 million and apparently can access to it through the FBI and Department
of Homeland Security.
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- Those minutes note that the FBI, Secret Service and two
agencies now under Homeland Security - the Immigration and Naturalization
Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency - helped Florida officials craft
data-mining software for Matrix.
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- In another link with the government, Seisint has former
federal and state law enforcement officials on staff, including managing
director Brian Stafford, former head of the Secret Service.
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- "This is the state version of TIA," Steinhardt
said, referring to the Pentagon's Terrorism Information Awareness program,
which was shelved last year after a public uproar and a Congressional inquiry.
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- The TIA and its original leader, Adm. John Poindexter,
aimed to spot patterns in a much bigger pool of data than Matrix possesses,
and people involved in Matrix reject any comparison. They say Matrix is
not a surveillance tool, but rather a revved-up search engine.
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- "The ACLU really doesn't know what it is and what
it isn't," said Bill Shrewsbury, a Seisint vice president and former
DEA and Florida state police agent. "The Matrix does not make any
predictive analysis of anything. It is not an intelligence database. We
do not put raw intelligence into it. We do not have access to that."
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- Launched in response to Sept. 11, Matrix lets states
share criminal, prison and vehicle information and cross-reference it with
databases held by Seisint, including civil court records, voter registrations
and address histories going back as long as 30 years.
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- The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which oversees
the program, says the files do not include phone records, financial transactions
or other material that would require a court order.
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- For now the project involves Connecticut, Florida, Michigan,
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah. About 450 law enforcement agents
are using the system, according to Clay Jester, Matrix coordinator for
the Institute for Intergovernmental Research, the nonprofit group helping
to expand the project from its original implementation in Florida.
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- Several other states considered the program before dropping
out, citing concerns about privacy or the long-term costs. They include
Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oregon, South Carolina
and Texas.
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- "The act of compiling even publicly available data
on innocent Americans offends fundamental rights of privacy," California
Attorney General Bill Lockyer said.
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- But Jester says opponents of the program ignore the fact
that private databases like Seisint's have become so powerful and widely
accessible that police were bound to use them eventually.
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- An organized effort like Matrix is preferable, he argues,
because it includes controls, privacy safeguards and penalties for misuse.
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- Even so, critics say Matrix goes well beyond traditional
investigative tools.
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- "If you start moving information from one state
agency to another, you're creating a profile of an individual, and a lot
of laws restrict that," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of
the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "And if you go to the private
sector for information, that's also raising significant issues."
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- To be sure, Matrix planners have tried to guard against
misuse, the documents obtained by the ACLU show.
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- Matrix security and privacy policies, dated November
and December 2003 and obtained in the Pennsylvania records, specify that
Matrix can only be used in active criminal investigations or in responding
to "a confirmed intelligence lead."
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- Also, investigators wanting to query Matrix have to be
screened and trained in its use. As well, information from the database
is supposed to be double-checked with the original source before "any
official action" - such as an arrest or warrant issuance - is taken.
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- Matrix searches are logged and can be audited; investigators
using the system inappropriately are subject to criminal charges. Jester
said those rules "absolutely" apply to federal authorities as
well.
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- The federal government's use of the system remains something
of a mystery. Jester and Shrewsbury say the FBI has access through state
task forces that it joins on certain cases but the Department of Homeland
Security has not tapped it yet.
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- A Homeland Security spokesman did not return calls seeking
comment.
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- At the Justice Department, spokeswoman Sheila Jerusalem
said her agency's funding for the Matrix "is exclusively and solely
for local law enforcement participation. The use of Matrix in any other
capacity is beyond the scope of the pilot project."
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- Whether federal agencies hope for deeper long-term involvement
remains unclear.
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- With such questions still looming, Steinhardt and others
demand much more information about Matrix.
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- Even Pennsylvania officials turned over only a small
portion of the records the ACLU requested. The ACLU is appealing and has
filed requests with several other states, as has The Associated Press.
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- "Who's really pulling the strings and funding the
program and creating its contours," Steinhardt said, "are answers
only hinted at so far."
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- - AP Investigative Researcher Randy Herschaft contributed
to this report.
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- Copyright 2003 Associated Press
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- http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGALRVK6RPD.html
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