EOTO Presentation (Blog 10)

    Total Information Awarness (TIA) was a mass detection program created by the United States government to track potential terrorist attacks. The program on paper stated that it was used for national defense, but many believed they were using the program to collect information on ordinary citizens. Once the program leaked, many Americans didn't like the data it was collecting because they believed their information was being recorded and stored by the government. In late 2003 the program code-named 'basketball' was supposedly defunded by the government because of the severe pushback. 

    Some of the most worrying details that came to light were what the program was actually collecting. For example, it was revealed that they were using the info to collect biometrics for facial detection from a distance, EELD collection of texts, social networking,  financial records, phone calls, and general web database collection.  

    When the program became public, the United States Information Awarness Office renamed the program from Total Information Awarness to Terrorism Information Awarness to justify the program. Senator Ron Wyden called it 'the biggest surveillance program in United States history.' When all the details were released, it was genuinely shocking what was happening. Finally, we began to see how the government would use this new tool to its advantage. 

    

    We continued to see government surveillance leaks since this was the original groundbreaking store. Although the program lost funding and was suspended, future programs used elements of basketball to create new ones. Finally, Edward Snowden revealed how wide-sweeping it truly was and how they continued to do the exact same thing except the program was more efficient. 

Total Information Awareness