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05/20/2004: "Ubiquitous Information"

Via Drudge, The Matrix computer system.

Matrix - short for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange - combines state records and data culled by Seisint to give investigators fast access to information on crime and terrorism suspects. It was launched in 2002.

Because the system includes information on people with no criminal record as well as known criminals, Matrix has drawn objections from liberal and conservative privacy groups. Utah and at least eight other states have pulled out, leaving Florida, Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

But the biggest concern with Matrix is not that it stores data from disparate sources, but that it mines that data to generate a list of otherwise innocent people prone to commit terrorist acts.

the scoring system was developed by the company and law enforcement officials by reverse engineering an unnamed "Terrorist Handbook" that reveals how terrorists "penetrate and in live our society."

The scoring incorporated such factors as age, gender, ethnicity, credit history, "investigational data," information about pilot and driver licenses, and connections to "dirty" addresses known to have been used by other suspects.

We have here a valuable tool of the internet age. We cannot close Pandora's box. We need to control this tool. We need to upgrade our government. (And I need to upgrade that screed.)