[TriLUG] FW: FYI Geek Meeting: CPSR forum on post-9/11 privacy and civil l iberties

[Vestal, Roy L.]

This came through my office from a collegue. I thought you guys would be
interested.


On Friday, April 25, 2003 from 1-5 pm, the Research Triangle Park chapter of
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the Information
Science/Information Studies program at Duke University, the DeWitt Wallace
Center for Communications and Journalism at Duke University, and Duke
University School of Law are sponsoring a free forum on the privacy and
civil liberty implications of the design and deployment of surveillance and
profiling systems by the US government. Such systems were authorized under
the USA PATRIOT ACT, which was hurriedly passed by congress post-9/11.

Two such surveillance and profiling systems are currently under design or
development by the US government: 1) the Total Information Awareness (TIA)
system; and, 2) the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC). The later
system was announced by George W. Bush during his State of the Union
Address. These systems will weave together strands of data from various
sources--such as travel, credit card, library, bank, electronic toll and
driver's license databases, as well as information collected domestically by
police and internationally by spy agencies--with the stated purpose of
identifying terrorists before they strike.

Experts from government, academia and industry will debate the technical,
social and ethical challenges raised by these systems. The forum will focus
on two themes: 1) the impact upon civil liberties and privacy; and, 2) data
security and fallibility inherent in large data mining and profiling systems
such as the Total Information Awareness (TIA) and Terrorist Threat
Integration Center (TTIC).

Confirmed speakers for the event include: Christopher Ford, General Counsel,
US Senate Intelligence Committee; Wayne Crews, Director of Technology Policy
at the Cato Institute; David Sobel, General Counsel, Electronic Privacy
Information Center; James Boyle, Duke University School of Law; and Jon
Doyle and Edward Gehringer, Department of Computer Science, North Carolina
State University.

The free event will take place at the John Hope Franklin Center on the Duke
University campus.

For more information visit the CPSR RTP Chapter web page at
http://www.rtp.nc.us

CPSR is known for its public forums on privacy. In May 2001 the RTP chapter
held a Forum on Personal Privacy. Speakers included Wayne Crews, Directory
of Technology Policy at the Cato Institute, Robert Ellis Smith, attorney and
publisher of the Privacy Journal, and Brock Meeks, Washington DC bureau
chief for MSNBC. The event was captured on video and can be viewed on-line
at http://www.ibiblio.org/cpsr