'Fusion center' privacy fears persist

Privacy concerns continue to plague state-run intelligence "fusion centers" that the Homeland Security Department has set up around the country despite security provisions contained in a law enacted last year to implement recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, according to an agency analysis released this week. The DHS privacy impact assessment says worries persist in the following areas:

1. Justification for fusion centers

2. Ambiguous lines of authority, rules, and oversight

3. Participation of the military and the private sector.

4. Data mining.

5. Excessive secrecy

6. Inaccurate or incomplete information.

7. Mission creep.

The report goes on to state that "no information sharing regime is free from privacy risks" and says its authors examined a number of those risks and the positive steps both DHS participants in the initiative as well as representatives of fusion centers have taken or should take in the future to mitigate them. As the program matures, the DHS Privacy Office anticipates discovering new privacy challenges that need to be addressed and the PIA will be updated whenever necessary, the document said. Additionally, the Privacy Office called for "a regular and ongoing examination of privacy issues within the fusion centers."

The ACLU has been a leading critic of the centers, which have also been the topic of at least one hearing of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee in the 110th Congress. The ACLU's top lobbyist Caroline Fredrickson has complained that the centers differ in significant ways and there is no single model or standards by which their data gathering and sharing activities are governed. Lawmakers must have a discussion about guidelines and the private sector's role in the data swapping, she said. "In a multiagency environment when it's unclear which agencies' rules apply, very quickly, no rules apply," added ACLU policy counsel Mike German.