November 6-12, 2003

city beat

The Matrix Knows

A new national database worries privacy advocates.

by Amy L. Webb

In the coming weeks, Pennsylvania will join a national database that shares extensive public and private information about residents with law enforcement and government officials.

The database, developed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, was designed to fight terrorism and find criminals. But it will list personal information on every Pennsylvania resident, regardless of criminal background.

Already, one database administrator has been caught harvesting information for her own personal use -- and privacy experts now worry about the safety of personal records.

"This database was a mistake," says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest research group based in Washington, D.C. "It opens the doors to a type of surveillance that is inconsistent with privacy law and the Constitution."

The database is called Matrix, which stands for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. In June 2002, 13 states -- including Pennsylvania -- agreed to share citizens' data to fight crime.

Matrix includes: speeding tickets; arrests and arrest warrants; marriages, divorces and births; past and present addresses and phone numbers; addresses and phone numbers of neighbors; names and addresses of relatives; contact information for business associates; tax records; make, model, color, VIN and year of all cars registered; all available driver's license photos; Social Security numbers, birth dates and credit records.

Some of that information -- criminal history, driving record, vehicle registration and photographs -- is already available on the federal National Crime Information Center database, which has been in operation for 30 years.

This system is different, because it will pool the NCIC database with commercial databases and public records and will house all available information in one central location. Matrix is restricted for use by law enforcement.

According to Matrix national administrator Phil Ramer, who is also in charge of statewide intelligence for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Pennsylvania officials should have access to records in the next few weeks. State officials will then begin feeding data into the system.

"There are technical issues about getting the rest of the local data in," Ramer says. "I can't say when that'll be."

Pennsylvania State Police Captain Jon Kurtz, who helps direct Matrix in this state, says it may take a little longer to get online here.

Florida was the first to broker a deal with Seisint, Inc., the private computer systems company based in Boca Raton that built the database and its software. Seisint was founded by Hank Asher, a drug smuggler-cum-information security expert. Asher also designed Autotrack, a powerful system that law-enforcement officials -- and journalists -- use to locate driving records, addresses and tax information.

It was Asher, too, who removed thousands of African Americans from voter-registration lists shortly before the 2000 election in Florida. His other company, Database Technologies, used similar databases to assess -- in error -- that they were felons.

Hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, Asher brought his idea for Matrix to the Florida State Police, offering to build the system for free, Ramer says. Florida accepted, still baffled at how terrorists had been moving around the state undetected as they planned the attacks.

Police later learned of Asher's background and he has since left Seisint. Asher was not available for comment.

Florida police have been using Matrix since its inception. Matrix cross-references driving and police records with commercial information, public data and private individual histories. "It takes us half the time now to find someone," Ramer says.

Matrix has already been funded with a $12 million grant from the Justice and Homeland Security departments and was originally intended to work in 10 states. Currently, there are no plans to seek additional funding from state budgets.

To date, Utah, Georgia, New York, Michigan, Connecticut, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania have "active" status -- meaning they are in various stages of using the database. Maryland, Colorado and North Carolina -- and now the Central Intelligence Agency -- are meeting with the national administration to discuss joining, Ramer says.

A CIA spokesperson said that he could not comment on the agency’s involvement.

All data will be fed to Seisint and housed in a multilayer, guarded compound sealed with biometric locks. Both Seisint security and local Florida police are stationed at the building now.

Internal audits are also supposed to protect information from improper use by the 20 Seisint employees and scores of law enforcement teams who have access to data. One woman was fired six months ago for prying into private information.

"She was looking up her boyfriend," Ramer says. "We don’t allow that. We will fire people for that."

While law enforcement officials laud Matrix, privacy and civil rights activists are concerned about government agencies providing personal information to a private company.

An Oct. 30 report issued by the American Civil Liberties Union calls Matrix "alarming" and warns that it jeopardizes the privacy of innocent people with no criminal history.

"Creating a program to combine separate, independently available databases of information on innocent Americans is not merely a "technological advancement," but a body blow to the core American principle that the government will leave people alone unless it has good reason to suspect them of wrongdoing," it says.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania chapter of the ACLU says it will begin looking into statewide implications of Matrix next week.

Gov. Ed Rendell has asked for an analysis from the state police to learn exactly how, and by whom, the information will be used. "We think that certain restrictions should be in place to protect privacy," says Rendell spokesperson Kate Philips.