[LINK] oreilly network: Problems of a total surveillance system

[Leni Mayo]

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/2285

by Andy Oram
Nov. 11, 2002

The Pentagon is planning a comprehensive system for mining personal data
and tracking "potential enemies operating inside the United States." 
Billed as an anti-terrorism measure, it will instead strike most
Americans as a key element of an upcoming totalitarian order. 

There are plenty of healthy reasons to distrust this system, which bears
the moniker "Total Information Awareness" and is designed to "break
down" the boundaries between government and private data. You could
potentially lose a security clearance or find FBI agents at your door
because of a university course you registered for or a book you bought
online. And the innocent people (or those who commit minor infractions,
like Los Alamos researcher Wen Ho Lee) who find themselves harassed by
this system will probably never learn exactly why.

But there are some more subtle reasons to oppose the data mining system,
even if you support a bigger role for law enforcement.

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