Age 16 to 25? The Pentagon Has Your Number, and More
 

The Defense Department and a private contractor have been building an extensive database of 30 million 16-to-25-year-olds, combining names with Social Security numbers, grade-point averages, e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

The department began building the database three years ago, but military officials filed a notice announcing plans for it only last month. That is apparently a violation of the federal Privacy Act, which requires that government agencies accept public comment before new records systems are created.

David S. C. Chu, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, acknowledged yesterday that the database had been in the works since 2002. Pentagon officials said they discovered in May 2004 that no Privacy Act notice had been filed. The filing last month was an effort to correct that, officials said.

Mr. Chu said the database was just a tool to send out general material from the Pentagon to those most likely to enlist. :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

"Congress wants to ensure the success of the volunteer force," he said at a reporters' roundtable in Washington. "Congress does not want conscription, the country does not want conscription. If we don't want conscription, you have to give the Department of Defense, the military services, an avenue to contact young people to tell them what is being offered. It would be naïve to believe that in any enterprise, that you are going to do well just by waiting for people to call you."

On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that the notification in The Federal Register had drawn criticism from a coalition of eight privacy groups that filed a brief opposing the database's creation. Yesterday, many of those privacy advocates, learning that the database had been under development for three years, called its existence an egregious violation of the Privacy Act's rules and intent.

"It's far more serious if the database had been established prior to Privacy Act notice," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "It's end-running the act by putting it into private hands and subverting the act by creating a public database without public notice."

The issue of the database has emerged as the Army and, to a lesser extent, the Marines, struggle to meet recruitment goals to replenish the ranks of the all-volunteer services. The Web site for the Pentagon's Joint Advertising Market Research Studies division, which manages recruiting research and marketing for all four branches of the military, describes the database as "arguably the largest repository of 16-to-25-year-old youth data in the country, containing roughly 30 million records." It is managed by BeNOW Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., a marketing company that uses personal data to concentrate on customers.

The database includes the names of more than 3.1 million graduating seniors, a list bought by the Pentagon, as well as the names of 4.7 million college students, Pentagon records show. Drawing information from motor vehicle records, Selective Service registrations and private vendors, it includes a variety of personal information, including grades, height, weight and Social Security numbers.

The information is used primarily for direct-mail campaigns and to help the military weed out people who would not be eligible. It is also sent monthly to the recruiting command, said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, and could be shared with local recruiters.

Recruiters have compiled and used similar data for decades, according to interviews with former military officials. But this database is the most extensive centralized collection of such records. The information is continually being merged for focused marketing.

"Halfway through 2004," said a briefing on the program in February that appears on a Pentagon Web site, "we started overlaying ethnicity codes and telephone numbers."

Mr. Chu said the information, particularly Social Security numbers, was closely guarded and had not been shared with other agencies.

For some parents, any information gathered by the military covertly amounts to an intrusion.

"There is no buffer zone," said Sandra Lowe of Sonoma, Calif., who is a mother of four, including two teenage boys. "It's a direct shot to someone's child without consent from a parent. If you were to come on campus and wanted to take a picture of a child, you have to get a release - just to take a picture. This is a lot more than that."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/po...erland&emc=rss

:1orglaugh

They should have given parents concent first. Well, looks like Pentagon's first step ain't that smooth..

brrrr.... anyone feel that draft? shut the window

I got news for you. If you don't think every recruiter in your city doens't have the home phone number and address of every high school senior........ your dumber than a pile of bricks.

once again, im not reading all of that.

There are no drafts in here, we will never have a draft, no child is going to be left behind... When we go to war :winkwink:

Regards,

Lee

Yep..'tis true.

and for people who can't quite see where this is leading and told us it would never happen. :1orglaugh :321GFY

and we have always been at war with oceana

:1orglaugh :pimp

well it has it's pros & cons.

I really do need to find a new permanent residence.

Just incase a big war might break out :winkwink:

doesn't bother me at all. there's not going to be a draft, period. if there was one, i'd be happy to serve.

So you'd be happy if you HAD to? That makes no sense.
Go ahead and join now, they need all the help they can get.

By law...every 18 year old has to register for the draft. I do not know it to be true but I would think that military recruiters would be allowed access to the draft boards registrants.

None the less...military recruiters...have basic information (name, phone, home address) of most graduating seniors anyhow as they recruit students to provide them with said information...when some schools will not allow them on campus access to students.

Personally I did not favor ending the draft and I am in favor of reinstating the draft...for multiple reasons.

LOL.. typical... don't read the 2257 either... you will have time for that either when you are in the army or in jail.

About the 6 th line, most important point:

It is not much the actual collection and use of the data, but the fact that they "OMITTED" to divulge the practice as required by law... Will they go to jail for non-compliance ???

all i can say is props to the US gov for this efficient planning of the upcoming invasions in iran and syria

If you don't have a high IQ, they'll recruit you for being out in the field (non-specialized).. if you have a high IQ, they'll have you at command posts and such...

Great to be in Canada..

Matt

Could very well be Venezuela before ....

They're just preparing for the oil wars coming in a couple of years.

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

fuckers.

bush had a stipulation of "schools will either give military full access to school records or we cut funding"

and it did not sit well.

now schools are calling for ban on military recruiters at schools, which is why they will now gather the material illegally.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24332906.htm

the school funding cut is part of the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT.

"A former Paterson high school science teacher is trying to spread the word about a little-known provision of the No Child Left Behind Act that supplies students' names and contact information to military recruiters.

Schools that don't comply could lose their federal funding, but parents _ and students who are 18 or older _ can stop the release of their information by signing a form and filing it with their schools"

if you want your schools funded, give us access to your student data or we will cut funding.

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local...168070149.html

there is your NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND act.

I wonder how many illegal things the current administration has done already .