Pentagon Creating Student Database

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Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:05:51 -0400

Pentagon Creating Student Database

 

 

 

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Pentagon Creating Student Database

Recruiting Tool For Military Raises Privacy Concerns

 

By Jonathan Krim

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A01

 

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private

marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to

18 and all college students to help the military identify potential

recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

 

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new

database will include personal information including birth dates,

Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages,

ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

 

The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of

many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of

data to target potential custo! mers based on their personal profiles

and habits.

 

" 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, " according to the official notice

of the program.

 

Privacy advocates said the plan appeared to be an effort to

circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or

hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work.

 

Some information on high school students already is given to

military recruiters in a separate program under provisions of the 2002

No Child Left Behind Act. Recruiters have been using the information

to contact students at home, angering some parents and school

districts around the country.

 

School systems that fail to provide that information risk losing

federal funds, although individual parents or students can withhold

information th! at would be transferred to the military by their

districts. John Moriarty, president of the PTA at Walter Johnson High

School in Bethesda, said the issue has " generated a great deal of

angst " among many parents participating in an e-mail discussion group.

 

Under the new system, additional data will be collected from

commercial data brokers, state drivers' license records and other

sources, including information already held by the military.

 

" 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 in response to questions. " This program is important because it

helps bolster the effectiveness of all the services' recruiting and

retention efforts. "

 

The Pentagon's statements added that anyone can " opt out " of the

system by providing detailed personal information that will be kept in

a separate " suppression file. " That 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 Pentagon.

 

But privacy advocates said using database marketers for military

recruitment is inappropriate.

 

" We support the U.S. armed forces, and understand that DoD faces

serious challenges in recruiting for the military, " a coalition of

privacy groups wrote to the Pentagon 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. "

 

Chris Jay Hoofnagle, West Coast director of the Electronic Privacy

Information Center, called the system " an audacious plan to

target-market kids, as young as 16, for military solicitation. "

 

He added that collecting Social Security numbers was not only

unnecessary but posed a needless risk of i! dentity fraud. Theft of

Social Security numbers and other personal information from data

brokers, government agencies, financial institutions and other

companies is rampant.

 

" What's ironic is that the private sector has ways of uniquely

identifying individuals without using Social Security numbers for

marketing, " he said.

 

The Pentagon statements said the military is " acutely aware of the

substantial security required to protect personal data, " and that

Social Security numbers will be used only to " provide a higher degree

of accuracy in matching duplicate data records. "

 

The Pentagon said it routinely monitors its vendors to ensure

compliance with its security standards.

 

Krenke said she did not know how much the contract with BeNow was

worth, or whether it was bid competitively.

 

Officials at BeNow did not return several messages seeking

comment. The company's Web site does not have a published privacy

policy, nor does it list either a chief privacy ! officer or security

officer on its executive team.

 

According to the Federal Register notice, the data will be open to

" those who require the records in the performance of their official

duties. " It said the data would be protected by passwords.

 

The system also gives the Pentagon the right, without notifying

citizens, to share the data for numerous uses outside the military,

including with law enforcement, state tax authorities and Congress.

 

Some see the program as part of a growing encroachment of

government into private lives, particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001,

terrorist attacks.

 

" It's just typical of how voracious government is when it comes to

personal information, " said James W. Harper, a privacy expert with the

Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. " Defense is an area where

government has a legitimate responsibility . . . but there are a lot

of data fields they don't need and shouldn't be keeping. Ethnicity

strikes me as particularly inappropriate. "

 

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Social Security

Administration relaxed its privacy policies and provided data on

citizens to the FBI in connection with terrorism investigations.