FBI database must follow accuracy requirements, EPIC says [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

PRESS RELEASE
February 20, 2004

Contact:
        Marcia Hofmann, EPIC Staff Counsel
        202 483 1140 x112
        <hofmann () epic org>


                EPIC URGES ACCURACY REQUIREMENTS FOR
                  CRIMINAL JUSTICE RECORD DATABASE

WASHINGTON, DC - In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget
today, the Electronic Privacy Information Center urged the agency
agency to reverse the FBI's decision to exempt the nation's largest
criminal justice database from accuracy requirements mandated by
law.  "This action is urgently needed to ensure the integrity of
criminal justice records and to protect the privacy of millions of
individuals, particularly because NCIC access and functionality
continue to expand," EPIC stated.

The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is the most extensive
system of criminal history records in the United States, containing
information on more than 52 million individuals and averaging 3.5
million transactions a day.  In March 2003, the FBI announced that
the NCIC would no longer be subject to accuracy requirements imposed
by the Privacy Act because "it is impossible to determine in advance
what information is accurate, relevant, timely and complete."

In April, 2003 nearly a hundred organizations from across the United
States urged the OMB to reestablish accuracy requirements for the
NCIC, citing the harms suffered by individuals about whom the FBI
maintains inaccurate information and the risk of undercutting the
NCIC's effectiveness as a law enforcement tool. To date, the OMB has
taken no action on the request.

Today's letter said that the NCIC is now utilized by US-VISIT, the
government's new border security program, and may potentially be
used in the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, the
controversial passenger profiling system being developed by the
Transportation Security Administration.  EPIC asserted that the
NCIC's inaccuracy could undermine the effectiveness of these
government information technology programs.

The use of the NCIC in key homeland security initiatives has
recently made the database a target of Congressional scrutiny. At a
briefing on Capitol Hill today, EPIC Executive Director Marc
Rotenberg said that the NCIC record accuracy requirements must be
reestablished and that the Congress must look more closely at other
database systems, including US-VISIT and the passenger profiling
system or "CAPPS II."


LINKS

EPIC letter to OMB on NCIC Record Accuracy, Feb. 20, 2004

     http://www.epic.org/privacy/ncic/NCIC_letter.pdf

EPIC, April 2003 Letter on NCIC Record Accuracy

     http://www.epic.org/privacy/ncic/

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