Enhancing Security and Civil Liberties -- An open letter from Dave Farber, Esther Dyson and Tara Lemmey

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Enhancing Security and Civil Liberties
An open letter from Dave Farber, Esther Dyson and Tara Lemmey

As long-time civil liberty and privacy advocates, we are concerned with 
any government program or new technology that could lead to a loss of 
the personal freedoms that all Americans have a right to. Thus, as we 
consider how technology can help our government more efficiently fight 
the war on terror, we are also looking for ways that it can enhance 
rather than constrain those rights, most particularly in limiting the 
dissemination of information that is not relevant to an investigation, 
and in supporting more monitoring and accountability in the use of data 
by government agents.

For the past three years, we have brought this perspective to the 
Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information 
Age, a group that has dedicated considerable time and resources to 
determine how best to mobilize information to improve security while 
protecting established liberties. Legislation currently being debated 
in Congress to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations to reform 
our nation's intelligence community includes a provision based largely 
on the Task Force's work calling for the creation of a trusted 
information network that would foster better and more targeted 
information sharing and substantially improve our ability to predict 
and prevent terrorist attacks while at the same time meeting our goals 
for protection of civil liberties.

The Markle Task Force consists of leading national security experts 
from five administrations, as well as widely recognized experts on 
technology and civil liberties. Over the last several years, the Task 
Force's work has broken new ground on how technology and policy can be 
used together to enhance security and privacy. The Task Force's latest 
report, Creating a Trusted Information Network for Homeland Security, 
details the necessary elements of a proposed System-wide Homeland 
Analysis and Resource Exchange (SHARE) network that would more 
effectively combat terrorism than does our current system, while 
protecting privacy.

If our recommendations are adopted - as looks likely - it is vital that 
they be adopted completely, with the important protections for civil 
liberties implemented thoroughly and in good faith. Lip service is not 
enough.

The SHARE network would allow us to move from our current Cold War 
mentality of classification and "need to know" to a system better able 
to counter the threat of terrorism. This new approach is based on the 
idea of the "need to share" and is governed by clear government-wide 
guidelines on how information is collected and used and by whom, as 
well as strong oversight provisions built into the design of the 
network.

During the course of the debate in Congress over the implementation of 
the 9/11 Commission recommendations, valid questions have been raised 
over civil liberty concerns and role of such an information sharing 
network. We grappled with these same questions as we worked through our 
recommendations for the Task Force. We also learned important lessons 
from the problems of other efforts like the Total Information Awareness 
program (TIA) and MATRIX, both of which have raised serious privacy 
concerns. We eventually determined that you can achieve a balance 
between security and privacy if you ensure that strong guidelines, 
transparency, accountability and oversight are built into the network 
from the start.

In addition to the approach of building policy into the design of the 
network, the Task Force also designed the network not as a centralized 
database, but as a set of pointers and directories that allow only 
authorized users to gain access to information. The system also calls 
for regular and robust internal audits of how information is collected 
and stored and used.  Privacy technologies such as anonymization, 
permission controls, and audit trails are built into the design of the 
network to prevent abuse. In addition, the Task Force also calls for a 
phased implementation to allow for appropriate public comment and a 
strong civil liberties board to oversee the system and ensure that 
privacy

The SHARE network capability, if implemented properly, would give us 
the ability to overcome the systematic barriers to information sharing 
that so seriously constrained our intelligence agencies prior to the 
9/11 terrorist attacks, and that unfortunately still exist today. It 
would also provide us with the best opportunity not only to balance 
security and privacy, but to enhance them both as well.

David Farber is Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science and 
Public Policy at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon 
University. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Electronic 
Frontier Foundation. Esther Dyson is editor at large of CNET Netwoks, 
editor of Release 1.0 and former chairman of the Internet Corporation 
for Assigned Names and Numbers. Tara Lemmey is founder and CEO of LENS 
Ventures Inc., a network of experts focused on innovation in 
technology, science, law and economics. She previously served as 
president of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They are all members 
of the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the 
Information Age. For more information on the Markle Foundation Task 
Force on National Security in the Information age, please see 
www.markle.org.

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