DARPA reports on TIA (with new name!)

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:21:19 -0700 (PDT)
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com, neumann () pfir org
Subject: DARPA reports on TIA (with new name!)

Dave,

DARPA has released their new report to Congress on TIA, featuring
a name change (apparently today) from "Total Information Awareness" to
"Terrorism Information Awareness."  (The all-seeing eye logo and
Latin "knowledge is power" slogan are long gone, replaced with
a more abstract graphic.)

To quote the DARPA Web site:

      ... The program's previous name, "Total Information Awareness"
      program, created in some minds the impression that TIA was a
      system to be used for developing dossiers on U.S. citizens. That is
not
      DoD's intent in pursuing this program. Rather, DoD's purpose in
      pursuing these efforts is to protect U.S. citizens by detecting and
      defeating foreign terrorist threats before an attack. Therefore, to
      make this objective absolutely clear, on May 20, DARPA changed the
      program name to Terrorism Information Awareness ...

By the way, the DARPA spokeswoman I heard today suggested that the correct
pronounciation of the program is "Tee-ah" -- not T-I-A.

The full report is at:

   http://www.darpa.mil/body/tia/tia_report_page.htm

DARPA seems to feel that TIA would violate no current U.S. privacy laws,
and that the name change will result in fewer "misunderstandings"
about the program's purpose.

A rose by any other name?

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () privacyforum org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, Fact Squad - http://www.factsquad.org
Co-Founder, URIICA - Union for Representative International Internet
                     Cooperation and Analysis - http://www.uriica.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy


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