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Software Pioneer Quits Board of Groove (neat picture of Micth)
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 02:35:39 -0500
Software Pioneer Quits Board of Groove March 11, 2003 By JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO, March 10 - Mitchell D. Kapor, a personal computer industry software pioneer and a civil liberties activist, has resigned from the board of Groove Networks after learning that the company's software was being used by the Pentagon as part of its development of a domestic surveillance system. Mr. Kapor would say publicly only that it was a "delicate subject" and that he had resigned to pursue his interests in open source software. The company acknowledged the resignation last week when it announced that it had received $38 million in additional financing. "Mr. Kapor resigned from the board to focus 100 percent of his time on nonprofit activities," said a spokesman for Groove Networks, whose software has been used to permit intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials to share data in tests of the surveillance system, Total Information Awareness. However, a person close to Mr. Kapor said that he was uncomfortable with the fact that Groove Networks' desktop collaboration software was a crucial component of the antiterrorist surveillance software being tested at the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Information Awareness Office, an office directed by Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter. The project has generated controversy since it was started early last year by Admiral Poindexter, the former national security adviser for President Ronald Reagan, whose felony conviction as part of the Iran-contra scandal was reversed because of a Congressional grant of immunity. The project has been trying to build a prototype computer system that would permit the scanning of hundreds or thousands of databases to look for information patterns that might alert the authorities to the activities of potential terrorists. Civil liberties activists have argued that such a system, if deployed, could easily be misused in ways that would undercut traditional American privacy values. "Mitch cares very much about the social impact of technology," said Shari Steele, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that was co-founded by Mr. Kapor in 1990. "It's the reason he founded E.F.F.," she said. Several privacy and security experts said that Mr. Kapor's decision was significant and was indicative of the kinds of clashes between security and privacy that could become increasingly common. "With the dramatic change of funding availability in the high-tech sector, it's become difficult for companies to turn down the funding opportunities presented by the federal government," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "It does show that some people in the high-tech community, including some of the founders, are not happy with what's happening." The debate echoes an earlier one that placed scientists at odds with advancing technologies. The war on terror is raising ever more difficult civil liberties issues. "Computer scientists are going to have the same kinds of battles that physicists did amidst the fallout of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said Michael Schrage, a senior adviser to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program. On Feb. 11, House and Senate negotiators agreed that the Total Information Awareness project could not be used against Americans. Congress also agreed to restrict additional research on the program without extensive consultation with Congress. Congressional negotiators gave the Defense Department 90 days to provide a report to Congress detailing its costs, impact on privacy and civil liberties and likelihood of success against terrorists. All further research on the project would have to stop immediately if the report is not filed by the deadline. But President Bush can keep the research alive by certifying to Congress that a halt "would endanger the national security of the United States." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/11/business/11PRIV.html?ex=1048367544&ei=1&en =492a77eeb13df314 ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- Software Pioneer Quits Board of Groove (neat picture of Micth) Dave Farber (Mar 10)