MATRIX- Multistate Anti Terrorism Exchange

The Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX) pilot project leverages proven technology to assist criminal investigations by implementing factual data analysis from existing data sources and integrating disparate data from many types of Web-enabled storage systems. This technology helps to identify, develop, and analyze terrorist activity and other crimes for investigative leads. Information accessible includes criminal history records, driver's license data, vehicle registration records, and incarceration/corrections records, including digitized photographs, with significant amounts of public data records. This capability will save countless investigative hours and drastically improve the opportunity to successfully resolve investigations. The ultimate goal is to expand this capability to all states.
The information available through this pilot project has been accessible to law enforcement for many years but now can be accessed in a manner that allows them to react to threats quickly. Much of the information is available to the public upon request, and some may be accessed through the Internet. Some states have public records laws that provide criminal history records to the public. There is no new collection effort involved. No criminal intelligence databases are being connected.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
infinite, you're da man
thanks for the link!!! now i got some reading to do.

On October 30, 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed simultaneous requests in Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania for information about those states' participation in the "Matrix" program. (The program's formal name is the "Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange.") In addition to the five states named above, four other states are participating -Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Utah.

The ACLU's requests seek to find out the information sources on which the Matrix is drawing; who has access to the database; and how it is being used.They were made pursuant to each states' Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Previously, in October, the ACLU had sought similar information under the federal version of FOIA, and in Florida, where the program originated.

What is the Matrix, and why is the ACLU so concerned? Those are the two questions I will address in this column. I will also argue that readers should be concerned, too.

The Total Information Awareness Program

Last September, Congress voted to close down the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. As I discussed in an earlier column, TIA would have allowed the federal government to search and combine the vast amount of data that currently exists in government and commercial (that is, for profit) databases to create individual profiles of each of us.

TIA was premised on a belief that compiling as much information as possible about as many people as possible in a large-scale database would help thwart terrorist activity. The idea -- called "data mining" -- was that government officials would search the database for information, or patterns of information, that might identify terrorists.

Congress should be applauded for shutting TIA down. First, Congress banned the use of TIA against American citizens, in light of privacy concerns, as well as concerns about the potential for erroneous identifications of innocent persons as terrorists. The program was then renamed Terrorist Information Awareness. Then, Congress shut down that program as well.

Unfortunately, however, the same data mining ideas that inspired TIA have appeared again-- this time, in the guise of the Matrix

Originally posted by Nerdling
Saw this earlier, i wonder if any of the people on here are on the list

link
MATRIX is controlled by the participating states and not a vendor.

Vendor is not permitted to access law enforcement data provided by the states to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), other than in its supporting role to MATRIX.

MATRIX is not a substitute for the Total/Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) Project and there is no relationship to that system. Instead, it is a query/response based information source for use by trained and screened civilian law enforcement as a part of an active criminal investigation.

The MATRIX FACTS application is not an intelligence database nor does it contain intelligence information.

The MATRIX FACTS application only contains information already accessible to law enforcement from commercially available public records and state-owned data.

The MATRIX FACTS application does not track individuals.

The MATRIX FACTS application does not contain magazine subscription lists, reading lists, telephone calling records, bank transactions, lists of credit cards or credit card transactions, and; therefore, such data is not provided by MATRIX to law enforcement. Under federal law, when such data is required in law enforcement investigations, it can only be obtained under a judicial order; i.e., subpoena.

MATRIX is not a RISS sponsored program.

ATIX is not the same as MATRIX.

MATRIX is not a data mining application.

Files show Utah had key role in MATRIX
New details about MATRIX have government watchdogs and lawmakers suspecting a cover-up by the executive branch. Some have called upon Gov. Olene Walker to demand the return of Utah's information, which is known to include law enforcement files such as prison data, driver licenses and criminal histories but could extend to credit records, phone numbers and home addresses of law-abiding residents.
"We don't want our information floating out there when we don't know what's on the database or who has access to it," said Sen. Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park.
Said Senate Majority Leader Mike Waddoups: "I'd like to know our motivation for getting involved. There does seem to be some deception."