Leahy to seek data-mining oversight
01/11/2007
By Carol Eisenberg
Newsday
WASHINGTON - In his first hearing as chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) vowed yesterday to make
congressional oversight of fast-growing government data mining programs
his top priority.
"Congress is overdue in taking stock of the proliferation of these
databases," which use computers to sift through large amounts of
personal data, said Leahy, a privacy advocate. "Although billed as
counterterrorism tools, the overwhelming majority of these data mining
programs use, collect and analyze personal information about ordinary
American citizens."
Leahy introduced legislation that he said
would pull "back the curtain on how this administration is using this
technology" by requiring regular reports to Congress.
While
acknowledging that data mining can be useful, he said the legislation
provides a check on federal agencies "to disclose the steps that they
are taking to protect the privacy and due process rights of American
citizens."
The bill, supported by Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) and
Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), mirrors legislation introduced in the last two
Republican-controlled Congresses.
Leahy cited recent
revelations about a data mining program by the Homeland Security
Department assigning terror risk scores to travelers based on criteria
such as how they paid for their tickets and whether they bought one-way
tickets. The government uses those scores to decide who to pull out of
line for additional questioning, and keeps the information for 40 years.
"Incredibly," Leahy said, "... our government has been collecting and
sharing this sensitive personal information with foreign governments
and even private employers, while refusing to allow U.S. citizens to
see or challenge their own so-called 'terror scores.'"
Homeland
security officials defend the program as having a proven track record
of stopping terrorists. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Stewart
Baker said last month that it helped flag a Jordanian national trying
to enter the country at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in 2003. Two years
later, the man, Raed al-Banna, detonated a massive car bomb in Hilla,
Iraq, that killed 130 people, he said.
Sen. Arlen Specter
(R-Pa.), who has supported oversight in the past, questioned how many
people have been harmed by the traveler rating program and similar
projects. "Wait a moment," he challenged one privacy advocate. "If
they're kept off a plane, they have a right to challenge it."
Specter, the panel's senior Republican, did not say whether he supports the new bill.
At least 199 government data-mining programs were operated or planned
in May 2004, according to the General Accounting Office. Despite their
prevalence, however, "no one has demonstrated that the government can
predict who will commit an act of terror," testified former GOP
congressman Bob Barr, a privacy advocate.
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