Pentagon Creating Student Database

[David]

AP


The Defense Department, faced with enlistment shortfalls, has reportedly begun assembling a database of young people as a recruiting aid.

The Washington Post reports the Pentagon is working with a private company to collect information on high school students ages 16-to-18 and all college students.

The database will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass. and will include birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

According to the official notice of the program as quoted in the paper, "The purpose of the system . . . is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service."

Recruiters have already angered parents and some school districts by using available information to contact students at home based on some information on high school students already given to military recruiters in a separate program under provisions of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. The Post reports that school systems could lose federal funds if they don't give up the information, though students or parents could withhold data.

Additional data in the new system will be collected from commercial data brokers, state drivers' license records and other sources, including information already held by the military, the Post reports.

Privacy advocates tell the newspaper there are serious problem because the database will have a lot of personal information. They say it looks like the government is trying to evade restrictions on collecting such information by hiring private companies to do it.

"We support the U.S. armed forces, and understand that DoD faces serious challenges in recruiting for the military," the paper quoted a letter to the Pentagon by a coalition of privacy groups after notice of the program was published in the Federal Register a month ago. "But . . . the collection of this information is not consistent with the Privacy Act, which was passed by Congress to reduce the government's collection of personal information on Americans."

"Using multiple sources allows the compilation of a more complete list of eligible candidates to join the military," according to written statements provided by Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke to the Post. "This program is important because it helps bolster the effectiveness of all the services' recruiting and retention efforts."

The Pentagon's statements added that those who "opt out" of the system would have their information kept in a separate "suppression file." The pentagon says the file will be matched with the full database regularly to ensure that those who do not wish to be contacted are not, according to the paper.

[HARDCORE]

DAVE et al-

"FROM AGE 16 NOW YOU SAY!" Hell, why not from birth or even conception?

This transcends patriotism and duty, and the information being compiled stinks of the ultimate in Big Brother-ism, in my opinion!

"Privacy is indeed a thing of the past, unless there are enough of us left to contest our humanity, identity, and liberties being stripped away and replaced by but a number tag - from birth to death!"

Hell, while they are at it, why don't they send all this information on our youth to the United Nations, NATO, NAFTA, our enemies, and the Pope too while they are at it? "If, that is, they don't already have it?!"

VERITAS

[Keith_Hixson]

I'm in so many data bases, that being in a data base is just plain reality in our society. Welcome, to the real world Kids! I don't really like the idea of "Big Brother" but it is a fact of life in our society. Well, I guess it should bother me, but if it helps with military recruitment and these kids our in so many other data bases I'm not all that upset.

Keith

[Boats]

Ketih

Last night I watched on MSNBC three retired generals talking about how we (the US) can't continue to function as an active military force much longer since we don't have enough troops to rotate them out properly and therefore the reserves are being compromised because of the inefficient number of enlisted forces.

We may have to make a partial or full withdraw or bring in other countries military forces (of which we know none of them want to get into this mess because of retaliation aspects), to compliment the US forces already there.

In short they all agreed in part that this reads like VN all over again - except we don't have the draft or the personnel to sustain this current arrangement we have gotten ourselves into.

This will surely make the terrorist happy to hear that we may have to pull back or retreat all together, which will send the signals that we've reached a point that we can no longer sustain our actions in that area of the world. This is what they've been waiting to hear.

It is also becoming a US tax payer's nightmare as we are quickly going into major cost issues, which will increase our National Debt to unbelievable proportions of which we may never recover.

All this on TV last night - it was pretty shocking to here this - but I still don't think we are just ready to bail out - not yet. But its getting real ugly in the trenches and a lot of mud slinging has once more surfaced to which politicians are already thinking about the votes they will loose if this isn't resolved quickly.

It's got all the signs of earlier conflicts. Your thoughts.

[Gimpy]

I saw the same thing on TV last night.

I agree with you................it's gettin kind of scary for our troops.........as well as us here at home.

Looks like piss-poor planning in my humble opinion (as well as a few of those Generals!).

[David]

AP


Privacy advocates are objecting to the Pentagon's use of a database with files on millions of young people that the military says it needs for recruiting to help fill its ranks.

The data could be abused by the government or the private company that keeps it, the advocates contend. They also say there is no need for the information to include Social Security numbers, which could be used to steal someone's identity.
The military says the information will help steer it to potential recruits. Officials said the Social Security numbers are scrambled to prevent abuse and that the database only has been used for recruiting purposes.

The issue has surfaced as the regular Army ? and the reserves of all four military branches ? are having difficulty attracting recruits.

"The program is very important because it helps the recruiters be more effective to target qualified candidates for specific missions," a Defense Department spokeswoman, Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, said Thursday.

The Pentagon's Joint Advertising, Market Research and Studies Group has overseen the data since 2003, when it took over several recruiting databases managed separately by the military services.

The military says it collects the data itself. It has hired one company, Mullen, to manage the information. Mullen hired a subcontractor, BeNow, of Wakefield, Mass., to process the data.

Privacy advocates learned of the database only recently after the military, as required by law, put a notice in the Federal Register, a federal government publication, that it keeps such information.

David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel, said it was a "fair complaint" that the Pentagon should have given notice in 2003 instead of now.

The privacy group's concerns were reported in The Washington Post on Thursday.

According to the Federal Register notice, the data includes high school students age 16 to 18, college students, and people who have registered with the Selective Service, which would manage a military draft if it were reinstituted.

American men age 18 to 25 are required to register with Selective Service and provide their Social Security number.

The information kept on each person includes name, gender, address, birthday and, if available, the Social Security number, e-mail address, ethnicity, telephone number, high school, college, graduation dates, grade-point average, education level and military test scores, the notice in the register said.

It also includes a list of people who do not want to be contacted by the military for recruitment purposes, officials said.

The military obtains this information from several sources: individuals who volunteer it, state motor vehicle departments, commercial information brokers and the Selective Service system. The records are supposed to be destroyed five years after they are gathered, the military says.

Military officials said they have about 30 million names in this database. Chu said the services have been required by law to keep such information for recruiting purposes for at least 23 years.

Chu said later that the Social Security number is scrambled before it enters the database so it remains a unique number useful to identify an individual, but not that person's actual Social Security number.

The arrangement has many problems, said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, a director with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Hoofnagle was one of nine privacy advocates who filed a protest in the Federal Register notice.

For one, the military provides no guarantees it will not turn over the information to law enforcement, counterintelligence and other government agencies, Hoofnagle said in an interview. Krenke said the Pentagon does not do this; the Federal Register notice says the military retains the right to do so.

"Without your consent the Defense Department can take data out of the system and share it with other agencies," Hoofnagle said.

That the military buys some of its information from commercial vendors may violate the federal Privacy Act, Hoofnagle said. The government is required to contact an individual first to gather information before trying to obtain it from other outlets, he said.

Hoofnagle also raised concerns about BeNow's ability to safeguard the data, saying it would be safer if directly held by the government. A receptionist at BeNow referred all questions to the Pentagon.

The Pentagon office does not manage data the military services collect under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, officials said. A provision of this act requires school districts to provide military recruiters with student phone numbers and addresses or risk losing millions in federal education aid.

Parents or students 18 and over can "opt out" with a written request. Critics have challenged the measure on privacy grounds; others say it provides the military an unfair opportunity for the military to sway young minds.

[HARDCORE]

David: "Privacy advocates are objecting to the Pentagon's use of a database with files on millions of young people that the military says it needs for recruiting to help fill its ranks."

If the military says that it needs these records to continue to fill it's ranks, then I ask you why? Especially if the figures that I saw yesterday regarding information on children as young as 16 years old in this database, was correct?

At a time when more and more people (right or wrong?) are sounding off over our continuing involvement in the Middle East (even members of both political parties), and when the issue of non-existent (to here) WMDs has all but been forgotten, and when the African (or is that Martian) nuclear connection has also faded into the woodwork, why should the disintegration of privacy and the seizure of private property surprise anyone? After all, you were warned by the "Powers That Be" that a "NEW AGE" was dawning and that certain rights would have to be watered down or eliminated, were you not? "The time to sing out was then, but it is still not too late!!"

This "BUREAUCRATICALLY-ORCHESTRATED GUILT-TRIP" laid upon you and yours, if you do not agree with every (mis) step of government, is pure BS!! These political (Never Wrong) bonvivants put their pants on - "ONE LEG AT A TIME, JUST LIKE YOU!" They also screw up on occasions, just like us all! And for the record, if we fear to sound off when a few in power "SCREW UP ROYAL". the next right to go just may be your"FREEDOM OF SPEECH?" :cd: :cd:

VERITAS