The Short Life, Public Execution and Resurrection of John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness

Was it an Orwellian nightmare or an intelligence savior? John Poindexter says TIA was sucked into a vortex of politics and knee-jerk foolishness before anyone could answer that question.

If you presented the project without focusing on that filter, he says, "it was a scary thing." He concedes that he should have been more sensitive to the privacy issue from a PR standpoint. "Although I knew it was a huge problem, in our public materials we probably should...have tried to be more precise in talking about privacy. Explain it in bigger detail, and put it up in flashing lights."

In other words, a full-fledged marketing team could have helped win TIA a more even-handed reception, or limited the negative spin that overtook it. Either way, says Poindexter, the damage to TIA pales next to the possible long-term effects on DARPA, if it becomes reluctant to tackle controversial projects.

"It's very important that DARPA and the government continue to do controversial research," he says. "DARPA has been successful in the past because they take on some of these controversial issues."RegretsDoes John Poindexter regret having gone back to the government? "No. No, I think that we raised a lot of interesting issues. That's one of the advantages of DARPA. This brainstorming we do, once DARPA begins to think about a problem, that provides a lot of leverage. You get universities thinking about the problem. Furthermore, once good ideas surface and the R&D community begins thinking about the issues, potential solutions are imagined." The work then takes on a life of its own, though, he notes, "not necessarily with government funding. It just doesn't happen overnight."

Already, he says, Carnegie Mellon University has created a center to address the interface between policy and technology, especially privacy protection technology. Syracuse University's graduate schools of law and public administration recently hosted a joint event focused on security and privacy.

"I also think it's important for commercial companies; they need to be much more sensitive to the way that personal information can be used for marketing.

"See, I really believe that we don't have to make a trade-off between security and privacy. I think technology gives us the ability to have both. Privacy issues are being discussed. There's a lot more discussion. And so the reasoned, open public discussion that I wanted to achieve is finally beginning to take place. But unfortunately, in my opinion, Congress overreacted too early, for political reasons."AppropriationsOne of the reasons Poindexter talks about TIA in the present tense is because large portions of the work begun at the IAO are continuinga fact that at least one GAO attorney says might surprise even some members of Congress. But the ongoing work has been moved onto classified, or "black," parts of the defense budgetwhere it's free from public scrutiny.