US Shuts Down Controversial Anti-Terror Database 238
coondoggie writes "The massive anti-terror database established by the US government has been criticized for keeping track of regular everyday citizens. Computerworld reports that as of September 17th, the database will be shut down. 'The Threat and Local Observation Notices or TALON, was established in 2002 by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz as a way to collect and evaluate information about possible threats to U.S. service members and defense civilians all over the world.
Congress and others protested its apparent use as an unauthorized citizen tracking database. The TALON system came under fire in 2005 for improperly storing information about some civilian individuals and non-government-affiliated groups on its database. The Air Force developed TALON... in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a way to gather data on possible terrorist threats. Anti-war groups and other organizations, protested after it was revealed last year that the military had monitored anti-war activities, organizations and individuals who attended peace rallies.'"
Re:slashdotliberalwhining? (Score:2, Informative)
No (Score:5, Informative)
This program is unrelated. It's not datamining anything. All this is is a centralized database of threats to DoD installations and personnel. Sure, it has its potential for abuse, but its a very different animal from TIA, and confusing the two does't help anyone.
Re:slashdotliberalwhining? (Score:1, Informative)
The problem is that many people feel a sense of safety each time their government passes a new law. On the political spectrum, the people who have these feelings can be considered authoritarians. The funny thing is that this submissive mentality has always been part of politics. It is probably embedded into our DNA at this point from all the authoritarian-type governments and social hierarchies that humans have lived through. The real struggle in the United States right now is not Liberal vs. Conservative; it is about people who embrace freedom, and those that do not.
I hope that in the near future, more people will understand and embrace their freedom, instead of throwing it away whenever they hear a few keywords uttered on the television.
~ A concerned American Coward.
Re:Wink Wink Nod Nod... (Score:3, Informative)
This sort of thing has been reported for US government agencies for decades. Back when all the data was all in paper archives, there were lots of reports of agencies that "obeyed" orders to destroy them by first running them through copiers, transporting the copies to some other site, and then destroying the originals. I recall during the Vietnam War, when the DoD was ordered to destroy their records of spying on anti-war groups, and the DoD announced that it had done so. But some time later, reporters published reports that at least five backup copies had been located at five different sites.
No matter how dumb you think government (or corporate) employees are, fact is that most of them are smart enough to figure out this ruse.
There's also the reverse version that's been making the news: We're now reading reports of managers (government and corporate) finding the contents of their email used against them in court, when they thought that the email messages had been deleted. The messages had been deleted from disk, of course, but the backups could still be read. Oops!
When you read stories like this, you should always ask yourself "How many copies were made?" That will put you into the proper cynical perspective, which you'll later remember when it turns out you were right to ask.
Ron Paul wouldn't spy on the citizens (Score:2, Informative)