In 2002, an experimental Pentagon research project called Total Information
Awareness (TIA) was being created under leadership of the Defense Department's
Information Awareness Office (IAO). The TIA program objective is to aid the
United States in detecting, classifying and identifying foreign terrorists in
order to successfully preempt and defeat terrorist acts.
This unit examines the Total Information Awareness project and some of the
issues it raises for Americans about privacy, freedom, and security in the wake
of the attack of September 11, 2001. This unit also defines and explains public
policy - what it is and how it works. The unit introduces GRADE, a strategy for
evaluating this and other public policies.
Focus Question
Will the Total Information Awareness project be an effective security measure
to reduce the threat of terrorism?
Is the Total Information Awareness project an acceptable use of personal
information about U.S. citizens and residents by the federal government?
Should the U.S. Government develop the Total Information Awareness project?
Objectives
Provide information about the scope and purpose of the Total Information
Awareness project.
Highlight the difficulties faced by the federal government in preventing
terrorist attacks within the United States without coordinated access to data
located in multiple databases.
Identify concerns surrounding personal information that would be accessible
through a coordinated search structure maintained by the federal government.
Generate a working definition of public policy, supply tools for analyzing
policy in order to form an educated decision, and promote recognition of the
impact of public policy and how to affect policy decisions.
Develop and support a reasoned position on the creation of the Total
Information Awareness project.
Materials
A. Reading: What Is Total Information Awareness?
B. Source: Defense Advance Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Office of
Information Awareness (OIA) and Total Information Awareness Project
C. Activity: National Security and Personal Privacy: A Human Graph
D. Questions: National Security and Personal Privacy
E. Activity: Developing Total Information Awareness: A Presidential Commission
F. Strategy: Looking at Public Policy: G R A D E
G. Taking a Stand: Position Paper on Total Information Awareness
Creating a Federal Database: Selected Community, Print, and Internet Resources
Last updated: September 15, 2006
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