Total Information Awareness

[Guest Valiant Son]

Total Information Awareness

The Total Information Awareness (TIA) system will NOT work

[Guest Surrender]

Dear ValiantSon:

Just in case someone responds to your message and tells you that you're paranoid, let me post my support for your assertions.  I cover such issues as a reporter, focusing on Capitol Hill and the Pentagon.  I think the general intentions of many, but obviously not all or even most, members of our govt. are good.  But despite attempting to address real threats and protect our nation, some of these bureaucrats have gotten out of control.  

The choice of name -- Total Information Awareness -- isn't a coicidence.  I regularly inspect publicly available govt. databases that solicit help from industry for all sorts of R&D programs.  I'm developed  enough awareness of the startling technological developments (both good and not-so-good) sought by entities such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).  I'm convinced that some time in the future (I don't claim to know when) we will live in a world where just about all movements and all transactions (financial and otherwise) will be monitored or at least digitally documented in some fashion.  

It isn't fantasy to think that the govt. -- and only with the help of private industry -- will be able to bring up on a screen a comprehensive list of where you've been (enabled by a combination of publicly placed CCTVs and physical/facial recognition software), and what you've purchased, sought data about, asked questions of, or filed a protest with.  Many of these capabilities already are in place--the next step is having access to such disparate databases simultaneously, aided by "intelligent" networks and systems that will process (i.e., make sense of) and disseminate such information.

If you haven't already done so, check out the Electronic Privacy Information Center (http://www.epic. org) for more TIA data.

One more thing: There will always be ways around such systems, and you can be sure that radical Islamists intent on detroying Jews and Christians will find such loopholes.  But as you said, our govt. will try to make it work, no matter its intentions may be.  Cash monitoring (or the elimination of the need for such monitoring) is one of the keys.

Sincerely,

Surrender