"Pentagon's Super Diary Project Could Put Powerful Software in Private
Hands"
Associated Press (06/03/03); Sniffen, Michael J. 

Pentagon documents state that the goal of the Defense Advanced 
Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) LifeLog project is to develop 
software that deduces behavioral patterns from monitoring people's 
daily activities, and DARPA officials say the initiative could be 
used to improve military training as well as the memory of military 
commanders.

LifeLog volunteers would be equipped with cameras, sensors, and 
microphones to record everything they feel, everything they do, and 
everywhere they go; the research is not classified, which means that 
LifeLog software could eventually be made available to private 
companies. According to the Pentagon documents, the LifeLog software 
would not just file geophysical and vital readings, but also emails, 
instant messages, phone calls, voice mails, snail mail, faxes, and 
Web-based transactions, as well as links to every radio and TV broadcast 
the subject hears and every publication, Web site, or database he or she 
sees.  

The Center for Government and Technology's James X. Dempsey is 
concerned that such a tool could impact privacy: He notes that the 
government can easily get hold of the voluntarily collected information 
with a search warrant, as well as take such data from third parties via 
request or subpoena. There are also unanswered questions about how 
data culled from LifeLog software would be interpreted by government 
agencies and private organizations, not to mention whether the system 
will include adequate safeguards to shield Americans from errors.  

DARPA insists that LifeLog will not be used for clandestine surveillance, 
and the agency's Jan Walker says there is no relationship between 
LifeLog and the Pentagon's Terrorism Information Awareness project.   

www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6001716.htm

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News Summary should be cited as the source of the information. 
Copyright 2003, Information Inc., Bethesda, MD.

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Source: NLECTC - http://www.nlectc.org/justnetnews/weeklynews.html


Cheers, Steve..

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