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Refining Proposals for Better Privacy and More Effective Information Sharing in the War on Terrorism 11 March, 2004 News Release Contact: Meghan Blake FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE REFINING PROPOSALS FOR BETTER PRIVACY AND MORE EFFECTIVE Arlington, VA —Project GUARDIAN, the Institute’s long-term study of the relationship and tensions between civil liberties and new technologies in the context of the war on terrorism, begins it second phase today 1. Over the last year, the Institute has assembled an impressive body of material, reflecting both original thinking and the views of experts in the fields of law, technology and public policy. In June 2003, and based on its preliminary study and analysis, the Institute proposed a new U.S. policy for the management of terrorist threat related information 2. In September 2003, the President issued a Homeland Security Presidential Directive (Hspd-6) on the “Integration and Use of Screening Information 3;” the directive closely followed the letter and spirit of the Potomac proposal. Both the Potomac proposal and Hspd-6 recognize that the tension between civil liberties and new technologies has two key components, perhaps even better described as requirements for rational resolution: (1) better privacy and (2) more effective information sharing. The essentials of the Potomac proposal (which are more specific than Hspd-6) are that: The government be required to identify, with some reasonable specificity, current categories of information it determines to be relevant to the current terrorist threat; Together, these defined categories of information would be called “Terrorist Threat Information,” a new term; Categories that included “U.S. Person” information would be protected by anonymous coding, required at “first intake” of the data; “Terrorist Threat Information” would be “red teamed”, to develop “Current Threat Models,” which would periodically reviewed and approved at high level; “Terrorist Threat Information,” as pertaining to “Current Threat Models” would be shared with Federal, state and local departments, agencies, and officials that were specifically identified and approved in advance; Release of “U.S. Person” related information would be subject to specific approvals; and, The entire management and operational structure for “Terrorist Threat Information,” especially that related to “U.S. Person” information, would be subject to strict internal Executive Department and Congressional reporting and oversight. This year, the Potomac Institute plans an aggressive program to further develop and articulate this proposal (and relevant proposals suggested by others) into more specific recommendations for policies and programs for actual implementation by the government in context of the war on terrorism. The 2004 program, called “Project GUARDIAN, Phase II”, includes an ambitious schedule of events, presentations and discussions. In addition, white papers focusing on one or more aspects of the GUARDIAN proposal and program will appear at regular intervals, such papers coinciding with the schedule of events and presentations. The first of these will be a discussion designed to determine whether it is possible for the government to specifically articulate categories of information it determines relevant to the current terrorist threat. To many, this seems a far more desirable way to proceed than simply to enable the government to obtain whatever information it wants—under the theory that “they’ll know it when they see it”. What makes this sub-issue so difficult is that significant portions of the information “relevant to the current terrorist threat” are likely to be “U.S. Person” centric. The second will look at the law and policy associated with managing U.S. Person centric databases, which are or would be established and used to address the current terrorist threat. The third will specifically deal with the technology of the “U.S. Person” issue in all of its aspects: intake, aggregation, analysis, and release of the data. The third event will also look at the technology associated with the integration of all terrorist threat related information to develop threat models, i.e., issues associated with “red teaming” and gaming terrorist threat related information. (The complex nature of these two technology–related sub-issues may require two separate discussions.) The fourth will focus on the role of Congress, the Courts, and the Executive Department in the management of the oversight regime for the intake, use and sharing of information deemed relevant to the current terrorist threat, including imbedded “U.S. Person” information. Other events will be considered as the program develops—as with any dynamic process, the intended schedule could be changed or modified to fit relevant legislative proposals, hearings or discussions, current events, and the scholarship of academia and other “think tanks” that are working on similar sets of issues. __________________________________________________________________________________
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