Homeland security approach to privacy challenged

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- Former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III said yesterday that he's worried about the effect of the nation's high-tech homeland security efforts on privacy, and he took issue with experts who argue that a balance must be found between security and privacy.
Speaking at the Homeland & Global Security Summit here, Gilmore, the chairman of the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, said he is concerned that the country is "on a hair trigger" when it comes to responding to terrorist threats.
"The time has come to stop and think about exactly how we're going to fix things," said Gilmore, referring specifically to the dangers that rushing to deploy new homeland security technologies can pose to privacy and civil liberties.
In December, the advisory panel that Gilmore heads, popularly known as the Gilmore Commission, released its fourth annual report to the president and Congress (see story). At that time, Gilmore expressed concern about the report's recommendation to form a National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) to analyze domestic intelligence related to terrorism. Gilmore acknowledged in an interview then that "domestic intelligence-gathering makes me nervous."
But in his most recent public statement on the issue, Gilmore said there's a significant difference between the current situation in the country and past times when the nation faced either real or perceived domestic threats. "It's not without precedents. We've had our Red Scare," said Gilmore. But now, he said, "we have the technology to watch everybody all the time, intercept all communications all the time ... [and] keep track of everybody."
During a news briefing in December at the White House, Steve Cooper, CIO at the Department of Homeland Security, said privacy issues would be one of the five guiding principles used to develop the administration's cybersecurity and critical-infrastructure protection strategy. "Getting the balance right will be a pendulum," he said, referring to the balance between privacy, civil liberties and the need for greater security. "We're not going to get the balance right, right out of the box."
Gilmore rejected that approach yesterday, saying the push to find a balance between security and privacy plays into the hands of terrorists. If the nation continually adjusts to an ever-changing balance, all the enemy has to do is "turn up the heat" to get America to tip the scales in favor of security at the cost of privacy, he said.
"What a brilliant position for the enemy to put us in," he said.
While perfect security is"unobtainable," Gilmore said the process by which the government can collect domestic intelligence on terrorist threats while protecting civil liberties has yet to be defined.
And not explaining how that will be done could have negative consequences for the way of life of millions of Americans, Gilmore said. "If you think your [personal] information is going to be collected, you're going to see different movies, you're going to buy different books, and you're going to go different places," he said. "That's just the reality."

Read more about privacy in Computerworld's Privacy Knowledge Center.