[wordup] Turning tables on government surveillance

[Adam Shand]

Via: Brett Shand <brett at earthlight.co.nz>
From: nettime <NETTIME-L at BBS.THING.NET>

><The San Jose Mercury News does a good job of covering issues related to
>digital rights, privacy, and copyright. Here's a development of special
>interest to those who were at World InfoCon earlier this month.
>-Steve>
>
>http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/nation/4772876.htm
>
>Posted on Thu, Dec. 19, 2002
>TURNING TABLES ON GOVERNMENT
>WEB SITE POSTING DATA ON DATABASE MONITOR
>By Jim Puzzanghera
>Mercury News Washington Bureau
>
>
>WASHINGTON - Internet activists have a message for John Poindexter, the
>head of a controversial Pentagon research project to find terrorists by
>searching the everyday transactions of Americans: Threaten to invade our
>privacy, we'll invade yours.
>
>They've plastered Poindexter's e-mail address and home phone number on
>dozens of Web sites, forcing him to block all incoming calls. They've
>posted satellite images of his suburban Washington house and maps showing
>how to get there. And they've created online forms to collect even more
>personal data on him.
>
>``If you are a store clerk, study the photos above. Learn this face. If
>you are a shipping clerk, study this name,'' reads a site titled ``The
>John Poindexter Awareness Office,'' a play on Poindexter's Information
>Awareness Office at the Pentagon. ``When and if you see Mr. Poindexter
>purchase something, travel somewhere or do, well, anything -- send us a
>tip describing your observations. We will display the information received
>right here on this Web site.''
>
>It's all an attempt to turn the tables on Poindexter, who is trying to
>create a vast database of information, from credit-card purchases to
>medical files, and develop software to search it for signs of terrorist
>activity. The project, called Total Information Awareness, has outraged
>civil libertarians since it became widely known last month -- and spurred
>some people to do a little database surfing of their own.
>
>``This is sort of a way of making him feel watched in the same way other
>people would feel watched,'' said Stephen DeVoy, 40, a computer scientist
>who created the John Poindexter Awareness Office site last month.
>
>Calls to Poindexter's house are now greeted by a phone company ``do not
>disturb'' message that says the person is not available. The Pentagon also
>has removed the résumés of Poindexter and other Information Awareness
>Office officials from its Web site.
>
>Jan Walker, a news officer for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research
>Projects Agency, which oversees Poindexter's office, said the Web site is
>periodically revised and would not comment when asked if Poindexter or
>others have been harassed.
>
>DeVoy said he's not trying to harm Poindexter or other Information
>Awareness Office officials whose personal information is listed on his
>site, adding that he has obtained Poindexter's Social Security number but
>has not posted it because he doesn't want to help identity thieves.
>DeVoy was employed by a private contractor doing information-technology
>work for the Pentagon until being fired in June, he believes, for other
>Web writings critical of U.S. policies.
>
>``My goal is to simply let them know what they are doing affects other
>people and they should think about the consequences'' of Total Information
>Awareness, DeVoy said.
>
>He's not alone.
>
>Matt Smith, a columnist with SF Weekly, facetiously published Poindexter's
>phone number last month and encouraged readers to call.  The column
>quickly circulated around the Internet and sparked a flood of responses.
>John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San
>Francisco-based electronic-privacy group, has published not only
>Poindexter's home phone number but those of some of his neighbors as well
>in a column that has been posted on several Web sites.
>
>``Some people are suspicious that the . . . Total Information Awareness
>system will be used to harass and track the activities of people who some
>significant fraction of society don't agree with,'' wrote Gilmore.  ``It
>would be good to have an early public demonstration of just how bad life
>could become for such targeted citizens.''
>
>Poindexter makes an inviting target for such a demonstration, said Declan
>McCullagh, editor of the Politech mailing list, which focuses on politics
>and technology.
>
>Poindexter was national security adviser to former President Reagan from
>1985 to 1986 and was a key figure in the covert plan known as Iran-Contra
>to trade weapons for Americans held hostage by Iran. He was convicted of
>five felony counts of lying to Congress, destroying official documents and
>obstructing the congressional inquiry into the affair. His convictions
>were overturned on appeal, because testimony given by Poindexter to
>Congress under a grant of immunity was unfairly used against him at trial.
>
>McCullagh said the Total Information Awareness project has sparked far
>more outrage than previous projects with privacy implications, such as the
>FBI's ``Carnivore'' Internet surveillance software.
>
>``This anger is manifesting itself in this strange sort of Internet
>activism,'' McCullagh said. ``I think there's a sense of, if you want to
>watch us, then be prepared to be watched yourself.''
>
>The Poindexter Awareness Office can be found at www.breakyourchains.org/
>jpao.htm.
>
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