The Price Of Security

The Pentagon this month completed the first set of test data for the Total Information Awareness system, says Lt. Col. Doug Dyer, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The experimental system is designed to use information from passport, visa, and work-permit applications and purchases of airline tickets, hotel rooms, over-the-counter drugs, and chemicals to discern patterns of terrorist behavior. Congressional leaders have criticized the system's potential to violate Americans' privacy, and Congress says it will restrict further research unless Darpa consults it first.