CIVIL LIBERTIES :: AUGUST 18, 2004

Fighting to keep Matrix off our backs

The Multistate AntiTeRrorism Information eXchange — known as Matrix — is a vast Department of Homeland Security database into which the Michigan State Police feeds information on Michigan citizens.

Of the approximately 13 states originally interested in joining the system, only Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Connecticut and Pennsylvania remain. Financial and civil liberties concerns scared most away.

The Michigan ACLU filed suit in Wayne County Circuit Court last week on behalf of itself and three individuals (including former Gov. William Milliken). The suit asks the court to stop the Michigan State Police from participating in Matrix until they are willing to comply with the state law that requires that such participation needs either legislative approval or the creation of a citizens’ review board to oversee any such participation.

The legal brief lists the four plaintiffs: William Milliken, Elizabeth LaForest, Al Fishman, and the Michigan ACLU.

Milliken was governor when the state law (the Interstate Law Enforcement Intelligence Organization Act) was passed. Milliken signed the law in l980 to prevent unsupervised and uncontrolled access to information about Michigan citizens, such as the infamous “red squad” files kept by the state police.

“I signed this act into law,” said Milliken in joining the suit, “in order to protect the privacy of individual citizens and, at the same time, provide law enforcement agencies with the tools they need.”

According to the suit, Milliken has a driver’s license and a registered motor vehicle and therefore his records have been or will be shared by the state police with Matrix.

Elizabeth LaForest is a Roman Catholic nun and peace activist in Oakland County who has been arrested and convicted of trespassing while committing non-violent civil disobedience. Her arrest and criminal records have been or will be shared by the state police with Matrix.

Al Fishman is a longtime social justice and peace activist who during the l960s and ‘70s had a “red squad” file kept on him by the MSP. He continues to be active in a variety of social justice movements and organizations. His records will also be shared by the state police with Matrix.

The ACLU Fund of Michigan is a nonprofit Michigan corporation, one of whose purposes is to protect the privacy rights of all citizens of the State of Michigan. The ACLU joins this case on behalf of its 13,000 members in Michigan. The state police provides records about ACLU members to Matrix.

“What’s particularly troubling about Matrix is that vast amounts of information are being compiled about law-abiding citizens,” ACLU attorney Noel Saleh said. “With a few strokes on the keyboard, anyone who drives or owns a car who has never done anything wrong or someone who’s been arrested for a minor offense may find themselves in the middle of a government investigation.”

One of the four objectives of Matrix, as articulated in the original 2001 federal grant that funded the program, is to provide management support to coalition efforts to exchange terrorism and other intelligence information. In testimony before Congress, Matrix was described as combining government records with information from “public search businesses” into a “data warehouse” where dossiers are reviewed by “specialized software” to identify “anomalies” using “mathematical analysis.”

This process is described as applying the “terrorism quotient.” If “anomalies” are found, the records will be scrutinized to search for evidence of terrorism or other crimes. According to the legal brief filed, the system is also capable of creating a “social networking visualization” on a particular individual, which in turn creates a diagram linking that individual to every other individual that they know or have had contact with.”

Government programs such as Matrix threaten our privacy. Government controlled data systems are a dangerous step toward establishing a 24-hour surveillance society. Government and private corporations are aggressively collecting information about our personal life. Together they track our purchases, our medical records, our reading and travel habits, even our personal relationships.

Recently, Northwest Airlines provided the names, addresses, travel plans and credit card numbers of its customers to a NASA project in complete violation of its own privacy policy. In another example, JetBlue provided information from over a million of its customers to the Transportation Security Administration, also in violation of its own privacy policy.

The ACLU suit asking either that the Legislature approve state police participation in Matrix or that a citizens’ review board oversee such data collection seems a rather mild request that certainly won’t threaten legitimate law enforcement needs.

In addition, though, we need to strengthen both state and federal privacy laws. We need to protect ourselves from recent government policies, coupled with invasive new technologies like Matrix, which may well destroy our privacy rights and create the “Total Surveillance Society.”

Henry Silverman is professor emeritus of history at MSU. His specialty is 19th and 20th century political, social and cultural history. He is also the president of the Lansing chapter of the ACLU. His column appears every other week.

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