[IP] Markle Foundation comment on NYT Article on DARPA's Information Awareness Office

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Title: approve:ggfarber  Markle Foundation comment on  NYT Article on DARPA's Information Awareness Office

I am a member of the Markle Task Force. Djf

------ Forwarded Message
From: Philip Zelikow <<pdz6n@virginia.edu>>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 22:14:39 -0500
To: dave@farber.net

Dave –

Appended below is the link to an article arguing that Admiral Poindexter’s office at DARPA is developing ideas for government data mining of private sector databases.

The same office has also developed ideas encouraging government agencies to do a better job of breaking down their internal barriers to sharing.  Its general research efforts, including work on open source data, are mentioned on p. 14 of the recent report, “Protecting Freedom in the Information Age,” of the Markle Foundation’s Task Force on National Security in the Information Age.  It can be found at www.markletaskforce.org <<http://www.markletaskforce.org/>> .

Unfortunately the story is constructed in a way that may mislead readers about the position of the Task Force.

The Times story, by John Markoff, cites fears about government data mining, and then states:

“Other technology policy experts dispute that assessment and support Admiral Poindexter’s position that linking of databases is necessary to track potential enemies operating inside the United States.  ‘They’re conceptualizing the problem in the way we’ve suggested it needs to be understood,’ said Philip Zelikow, a historian who is executive director of the Markle Foundation task force on National Security in the Information Age.  ‘They have a pretty good vision of the need to make the tradeoffs in favor of more sharing and openness.”

As you can tell from the quotation, I was quoted in a discussion about sharing of government databases.  As those who have followed the 9/11 Joint Inquiry have learned, the issue of sharing within the government is very important.  But it is a very different issue from the problem of government access to private databases, which was the earlier context of the story.  That word “openness” in my quote was a pretty good giveaway that the context was misaligned …

The Task Force Report does discuss government data mining in commercial databases.  It is not a sympathetic view.  At best we expressed a wary and skeptical approach toward some of the more exotic proposals for government data mining of private sector databases.  The relevant paragraph is on page 37 of the report.  We therefore advocated development of guidelines that balance privacy and security even in the initial government procurement of commericial databases, as well as in subsequent use of them – if any.

Philip Zelikow