Privacy advocates turn tide in homeland security debate

Ever since the 2001 terrorist attacks, policymakers have pursued a balance between two oft-competing desires: keeping the nation secure and protecting people’s privacy rights. The status of two technology-based security initiatives indicates that the scales still can tip either way. On one hand, a controversial Pentagon project to create technologies that could scour databases and aggregate financial, medical, travel and government records on millions of Americans has been effectively given up for dead by its foremost advocates. On the other hand, a full-court publicity campaign by officials in the Homeland Security Department—including the hiring of a chief privacy officer in May—appears for the moment to have saved another program designed to conduct background checks on airline passengers. But few observers doubt that the likely death of the data-mining program dubbed Terrorism Information Awareness, or TIA, shows how quickly the tide has turned in the battle between national security and privacy. Full Story