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Wisconsin Joins the Matrix [updated] 43

Posted by timothy from the suspected-of-cheese dept.
unassimilatible writes "Wired reports that Wisconsin has decided to join a controversial interstate antiterrorism database that holds billions of records of ordinary Americans' activities known as the MATRIX, or Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. Is your state next?" Update: 03/10 19:05 GMT by T : Thanks to reader philthedrill for a correction: according to an article in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Daily Cardinal, Wisconsin has backed out of the Matrix, effective yesterday.
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Wisconsin Joins the Matrix [updated] More

Wisconsin Joins the Matrix [updated]

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  • I have to see it for myself.

  • Obligatory reference (Score:4, Funny)

    by smack_attack ( 171144 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @01:56PM (#8522775) Homepage
    Wake Up Wisconsin...

    The MATRIX has you...

    Follow the white Republican...

  • May I be the first to say (Score:3, Offtopic)

    by mhesseltine ( 541806 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @01:56PM (#8522776) Homepage Journal

    "Whoa!"

    Now that that joke is over, do people really think that having all this information in one setup is going to improve anything? After all, look what happens when massive numbers of users try to access one particular resource at the same time (Slashdotting, Farking, September 11).

    It seems like this MATRIX is going to require a huge amount of potential bandwidth, computing resources, etc. which will cost us (the taxpayers) more money.

  • i have hated this state from the moment i saw it, but this is the nail in the coffin...any chance that wisconsin had of keeping me as a post-collegiate resident has now expired and it will be their economic loss

    • How on earth did this get moderated Interesting? It's just some infantile rant by some guy. Hey whiteSanjuro, I've got some news for you: Wisconsin is the most liberal state in the midwest. They routinely vote Democratic. In fact, Madison (the capital) was one of the few cities in the nation to denounce the Patriot Act [counterpunch.org]. I'm not sure where you're thinking of moving to but Wisconsin -- all jokes aside -- is one of the more progressive states in the nation.

      GMD

    • Heh, i thought the same way until i landed a great job here. now im stuck :) at least until grad school is done
    • I live in wisconsin, and the only real problem I have with it is the freakin cold weather. Madison is a GREAT town, it's consistantly been one of the top rated cities in the US to live in, probably due to it being very liberal in general. Also, if I remember correctly, our senator Russ Feingold voted AGAINST the Patriot Act and still is working against it. Wisconsin may also become the next state to legalize medical marijuana...in fact, the bill that would legalize medical marijuana was introduced by a REPU
      • As a European, I love Wisconsin. I visited Madison last year, and I think it's a very Europe-like city. I love the people I met in Wisconsin (I travelled along the shores of the lakes Michigan and Superior), and I think they are very liberal. IMHO the original poster really should re-consider his/her decision. ;-)

  • article went a little overboard? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hoyosa ( 541689 ) <<hoyosa> <at> <sdf.lonestar.org>> on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @02:08PM (#8522913)
    The article and the MATRIX homepage, seem to have some differences in what information they collect. The data that they do collect/have doesn't really seem like it would be a bad thing.

    from the MATRIX homepage:

    The Data Reference Repository
    EXCLUDED DATA

    The reference repository does not contain the following:

    * Telemarketing calling lists
    * Direct mail mailing lists
    * Airline reservations or travel records
    * Frequent flyer/hotel stay program membership or activity
    * Magazine subscriptions lists or reading lists
    * Telephone calling logs or records
    * Credit card or debit numbers
    * Purchases (e.g., retail store, Internet, or even gas stations)
    * Mortgage or car payments
    * Bank account numbers or account balances
    * The costs of a home addition
    * Birth certificates
    * Marriage licenses
    * Divorce decrees
    * Utility bill payments (i.e., gas, electric, phone, heating oil, cable or satellite TV)

    Therefore, such data is not provided to law enforcement. Under federal law, when such data is required to further a law enforcement investigation, law enforcement must obtain a judicial order (i.e., subpoena) and serve it directly on the organization having or owning such data.

    INCLUDED DATA

    The data reference repository for the FACTS application contains public records from thousands of locations (i.e., county courthouses and other public records locations) on U.S. individuals and businesses. Examples include:

    * FAA pilot licenses and aircraft ownership
    * Property ownership
    * Coast Guard registered vessels
    * State sexual offenders lists
    * Federal terrorists watch lists
    * Corporation filings
    * Uniform Commercial Code filings (i.e., UCCs or business liens)
    * Bankruptcy filings
    * State-issued professional licenses

    • Most of that, if not all, sounds like information that is already accessable to law enforcement or the general public. I don't see the relevance to terrorism on some of those... If we are singling out people who have pilot's licenses, we'll get a train engineer who will come into Chicago's Union Station at 90 mph and go halfway through the train station, killing lots of people.

      Seems like we need to think about things other than airplanes, because if all our focus is on that, we leave everything else wid
    • I might get crucified for this but wtf does state sexual offenders and bankruptcy filings have to do with terrorism?

      one would think that what they would really need would be gun licenses, fertilizer(&other chemicals useful for blowing things up) buyings and things like that could be related to actual terrorism, flightplans & etc.
      • what makes you think terriosts will get gun licenses? it is easyer for them to steel them, or buy them on the streets.
      • While I agree that the erosion of personal freedoms needs to be reversed, this is the reason I'm not really worried like the tin-foil hat crowd.

        The government is utterly incompetent. Don't fear them, pity them. They are so caught up in red tape that they don't know what's going on half the time.

        Can you really imagine it? A government program that tracks things which may actually be dangerous, instead of a silly Oracle-licensed database that is little more than an elaborate moneysink? It's not gonna happen
    • What's often important is the methods of data collection rather than how the data is stored. If it's not written down on paper or into a database, it doesn't mean that the data hasn't been collected, it just means that not everyone can access the information at the same time.

      How are they going to collect the information? Are they going to log your keystrokes? Use visual surveilance (which does not require a subpeona if it does not include an audio portion)? Either of the two require a human filter to be "

  • the movies were better (Score:3, Funny)

    by bluethundr ( 562578 ) * on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @02:09PM (#8522930) Homepage Journal
    This new "MATRIX" [matrix-at.org] sounds worse than the two sequels [warnerbros.com] put together. And in the fictional and non-fictional sense, both matrixes were just plain bad for humanity!
  • Christ my state can't even pave roads. Not to mention slow Meth production. Rural boobs in the MATRIX is the last of my concerns.

  • Woah (Score:3, Funny)

    by Undefined Parameter ( 726857 ) <fuel4freedomNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @02:24PM (#8523133)
    Screw Hollywood being out of ideas, now the government has run out of ideas! I mean... MATRIX, agents, UAVs/Sentinels... haven't we already seen this three times, already?

    Crickey! Next thing you know, NASA will be announcing plans for turning the ISS into a larger, more military-oriented space station, tasked to study the sun and keep watch on the Earth, that they call the "Death Star."

    May Neo have pity on us all....

    ~UP

  • Guard the Cheese (Score:3, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @02:35PM (#8523267)
    That is "mission one" at this time.
  • Or is this a rather unfortunate acronym?

  • Wisconsin took the Red Pill (Score:4, Informative)

    by philthedrill ( 690129 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @02:38PM (#8523298)

    Or was it the blue one? Anyway, as a Wisconsinite, I have to make a correction. I saw this article in the school newspaper this morning stating that Wisconsin has backed out [dailycardinal.com] of the Matrix.

  • The citizens of Wisconsin may soon be speculating if they have former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, a Bush cabinet appointee, to thank for this. Keep in mind most of the reliably liberal population has been quarantined in Madison and Milwaukee. However, the university educated liberty lovers won't necessarily be the decisive factor, as articulate and fact based as they may be.

    Competing with elections in November is this little event we call Deer Hunting season in Wisconsin. If this MATRIX thing tu
  • Yeah I live in WI, this kinda scares me since I log my chats and IMs. Hmm...

    *find/replace bombs|guns|warez|porn/fluffy bunnies

    There. Now reading my logs would make people think that the Columbine kids and Paris Hilton are really into fluffy bunnies.

    Heh, okay, I'll fess up, I sorta borrowed this from a bash.org [bash.org] quote.

  • may I just say "WHEW!" that we backed out of it.

  • What's most telling here... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bmasel ( 129946 ) <bmasel@tds.REDHATnet minus distro> on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @07:50PM (#8526819) Journal
    Is how a little exposure caused our (Democratic) State Attorney General to back out of the Matrix program. When I called their office at ~ 2 PM yesterday, I was told I was give or take the 20th caller. Helps, perhaps, that the AG was already in a good bit of political trouble for her recent drunk driving arrest.

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