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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, October 20, 2003 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

David Sobel

"Government Surveillance and Electronic Privacy After 9/11"

ABSTRACT -- In the wake of the attacks on 9/11, the federal government has sought to expand and increase its ability to collect and analyze personal data that might contain indications of new threats to homeland security. Within weeks of 9/11, Congress hastily enacted the USA PATRIOT Act, legislation that substantially revised the laws governing electronic surveillance and other methods of data collection. In late 2002, the public learned of an ambitious Pentagon program named Total Information Awareness (TIA) that sought to develop data-mining techniques that might somehow predict future terrorist activities. Similarly, the Transportation Security Administration announced its intention to implement CAPPS II, which would conduct background checks on all airline passengers. In the face of growing concerns, Congress has moved to prohibit further development of TIA, and to withhold funds for CAPPS II until its privacy implications are fully examined.

SPEAKER -- David Sobel is General Counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC, a non-profit research organization that examines privacy implications of communications media. He has litigated cases under the Freedom of Information Act seeking disclosure of government documents on privacy policy, including electronic surveillance,and encryption controls. Current cases seek disclosures concerning the PATRIOT Act, TIA, and the privacy impact various homeland security initiatives. He is co-counsel in the pending challenge to government secrecy concerning post-9/11 detentions, and contributed to the submission of a civil liberties amicus brief in the first-ever proceeding of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. Mr. Sobel has a longstanding interest in civil liberties and information policy issues and has written and lectured on these issues frequently since 1981. He was formerly counsel to the non-profit National Security Archive, and his clients have included Coretta Scott King, the Nation magazine, and ABC News. Mr. Sobel is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Florida College of Law. He is a member of the Bars of Florida, Washington DC, the U.S. Supreme Court, and several federal Courts of Appeals.




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