Georgia Fights The Matrix

Georgia Won't Join Anti-Terror Database
Tue Oct 21, 7:33 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!



ATLANTA - Amid cost and privacy concerns, state officials backed away from an anti-terrorism database that officials initially considered joining — a decision that makes Georgia the sixth state to abandon the Matrix project.



The move also casts doubt on the future of a database that tracks personal details of all citizens, not just those accused of a crime.


"I have held serious concerns about the privacy issues involved with this project all along, and have decided it is in the best interest of the people of Georgia that our state have no further participation," Gov. Sonny Perdue said in a statement Tuesday.


Perdue's decision not to join the database came a day after the state attorney general said it would be illegal for Georgia to release its driver's license records to the private company putting the database together.


Matrix, controlled by Seisint Inc., was billed as a speedy way for law enforcement agencies to find records.


Seisint representatives declined comment Tuesday, referring calls to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which oversees the database.


Department spokeswoman Kristen Perezluha defended the project. "Whereas before investigators would have to spend days and days digging up all this stuff, now it'll be in one place," she said. "It's a great tool, period."


But privacy rights advocates questioned the sweeping database, noting that it would contain credit histories, marriages and divorces, even fingerprints and Social Security (news - web sites) numbers.


Former state Rep. Bob Barr, an outspoken critic of the Matrix, lauded Georgia's decision, calling the database part of a "constant erosion of our individual right to privacy."


Other states that have pulled out are Kentucky, Oregon, Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina. That leaves the project with just seven members — Florida, Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah.


Perezluha said there was no fiscal penalty for the states that have opted out.


___


On the Net:





Tweet