The Homeland Security Act

There’s obviously plenty to talk about regarding the Homeland Security Act (just like with the USA PATRIOT Act), but I thought I’d concentrate on something that entertained me (just like with the USA PATRIOT Act). Mosaic theory.

Mosaic theory says that aggregated unclassified information can reveal highly classified and other sensitive info (McDermott, 2007). This actually makes a lot of sense. You get a lot of disparate information together, and voila! You can see the whole picture. Certain members of the former Administration have used mosaic theory as supporting evidence that virtually all information needs to be classified (albeit informally) since all of the information has the potential to inform terrorist activities.

Of course, those same clever politicians wrote the Homeland Security Act to allow mosaic theory to work for law enforcement and intelligence agencies by facilitating cross-agency information sharing (Relyea, 2004). This is yet another example of what’s good for the goose is NOT good for the gander. When it’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies, information sharing is a good thing, but when it’s the rest of us, information sharing is an act of potential terrorism. We’re back to the definitions roulette game I talked about in relation to the USA PATRIOT Act.

I was also amused to note that the Homeland Security Act established the Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (6 U.S.C. § 705). In case you’re interested, “The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties assists our dedicated colleagues to secure our country while preserving our freedoms and our way of life” (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2009). Sounds like the language the DOJ used in their über-unbiased Report from the Field, doesn’t it? Wonder who’s actually writing this stuff.

Meanwhile, at the same time that the federal government is protecting its own information, it can be prying into your information, sharing that information among law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and doing mysterious other things with it (Seifert & Relyea, 2004). For all we know, they could be selling our information to the highest bidder, never mind the dubious security measures in place to protect our personal information from leaking all over the place. I’d hate to think what all my personal information, in the aggregate, would say about me!

References

Homeland Security Act. (2002). 6 U.S.C. § 101.

McDermott, P. (2007). Who needs to know? The state of public access to federal government information. Lanham, MD: Bernan.

Relyea, H. C. (2004). Homeland security and information sharing: federal policy considerations. Government Information Quarterly, 21, 420-438. Retrieved February 14, 2009, from WilsonWeb database.

Seifert, J. W., & Relyea, H. C. (2004). Do you know where your information is in the homeland security era? Government Information Quarterly, 21, 399-405. Retrieved February 14, 2009, from WilsonWeb database.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2009). Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties [Electronic resource]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved February 16, 2009, from http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0371.shtm