Feingold Introduces Legislation Placing A Moratorium On Data Mining Senator’s legislation calls for a review of the Total Information Awareness Program January 16, 2003 Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold announced at a press conference today that he is introducing legislation to place a moratorium on data-mining in the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security until Congress has completed a thorough review of the Total Information Awareness Program and the practice of data-mining. Feingold was joined at the press conference by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans For Tax Reform and the Free Congress Foundation. "The untested and controversial intelligence procedure known as data-mining is capable of maintaining extensive files containing both public and private records on each and every American," Feingold said. "This unchecked system is a dangerous step that threatens one of the values we are fighting for – freedom. The Administration has a heavy burden of proof that such extreme measures are necessary." Without congressional review and oversight, data-mining would allow the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and other government agencies to collect and analyze a combination of intelligence data and personal information, including an individual's traffic violations, credit card purchases, travel records, medical records, communications records, and virtually any information collected on commercial, public or private governmental databases. Data-mining programs like Total Information Awareness will cost over $137 million for Fiscal Year 2003. The Congressional Research Service projects that they will cost upwards of $575 million for Fiscal Years 2004 to 2007. "The Administration's assurances that a data-mining system will not abuse our privacy rights ring hollow, particularly to those of us who questioned the breathtaking new federal powers in the USA PATRIOT Act," Feingold said. "It is reasonable to ask Americans to sacrifice some personal freedoms like submitting to more extensive security screenings at airports. But we should not allow the government to track our every move - from what items we purchase online, to our medical records, to our financial records B without limits and without accountability." Senators Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are co-sponsoring this legislation. # # # The Data-Mining Moratorium Act of 2003 Feingold's legislation will immediately suspend the development of data-mining systems in the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. The untested and controversial intelligence procedure known as data-mining in the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security is potentially capable of maintaining extensive files containing both public and private records on each and every American. In addition, the Data-Mining Moratorium Act of 2003 will require all federal agencies to report within 90 days about any and all data-mining systems under development or in use, and the steps taken to protect the privacy of all Americans from data-mining. Background: Data-mining would allow the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to collect and analyze a combination of intelligence data and personal information like individuals' traffic violations, credit card purchases, travel records, medical records, communications records, and virtually any information collected on commercial, public or private governmental databases. Through comprehensive data-mining, everything from people's video rentals or drugstore purchases made with a credit card to their most private health concerns could be fed into a computer and monitored by the federal government. Data-mining is a broad search of public and non-public databases in the absence of a particularized suspicion about a person, place or thing. Data mining looks for relations between things and people without any regard for particularized suspicion. Currently, in addition to government programs like Total Information Awareness, data-mining is conducted by commercial profilers who use public records and available commercial records. Currently, the Department of Defense is spending over $100 million developing data-mining systems like Total Information Awareness.

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