I want to be shocked at another government tracking program with no oversight, but sadly it's become just another lapse in judgment and oversight. However, the three things about this story on the Automated Targeting System (ATS) that make it interesting:
1. It's seems to have been going on for 10 years. All the current efforts against privacy have been cloaked in the anti-terrorist frenzy since 9/11. I wonder what the rationale was for this and how it was kept quiet for so long.
2. Government and non-government sources have access to the results, but you don't. Okay, again, WTF? This is bad on so many levels it's hard to pick one to start. How does this pass a privacy review? It can be used to make decisions about your employment and who the hell knows what else (beyond the direct application of shipping your ass to a CIA camp). If a private contractor or local government can get access to the data, you certainly should.
3. Homeland Security "chose" to release the information. Claiming the release of the project to the Federal Register as part of planned effort to be more transparent is a very bad joke. The ACLU rep quoted in the story called it Orwellian and that seems to fit best.
I really do hope that we start to reap the benefits of critical, serious and well-thought out oversight efforts fairly soon.
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