Information Awareness Office

Information Awareness Office seal^[1]^[2]
(motto: lat. scientia est potentia – knowledge is power^[3])

The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology to track and monitor terrorists and other asymmetric threats to U.S. national security by achieving "Total Information Awareness" (TIA).^[4]^[5]^[6]

It was achieved by creating enormous computer databases to gather and store the personal information of everyone in the United States, including personal e-mails, social networks, credit card records, phone calls, medical records, and numerous other sources, without any requirement for a search warrant.^[7] The information was then analyzed for suspicious activities, connections between individuals, and "threats".^[8] The program also included funding for biometric surveillance technologies that could identify and track individuals using surveillance cameras and other methods.^[8]

Following public criticism that the technology's development and deployment could lead to a mass surveillance system, the IAO was defunded by Congress in 2003. However, several IAO projects continued to be funded under different names, as revealed by Edward Snowden during the course of the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures.^[5]^[6]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]

^ "Information Awareness Office". DARPA. Archived from the original on 2 August 2002.
^ Tim Dowling. "What does the Prism logo mean?". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2013. The Prism logo is slightly more opaque than the one used by the US government's Information Awareness Office, which boasted an all-seeing eye atop a pyramid, casting a golden light across an adjacent planet Earth.
^ Hendrik Hertzberg (December 9, 2002). "Too Much Information". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 November 2013. The Information Awareness Office's official seal features an occult pyramid topped with mystic all-seeing eye, like the one on the dollar bill. Its official motto is "Scientia Est Potentia," which doesn't mean "science has a lot of potential." It means "knowledge is power."
^ Jonathan Turley (November 17, 2002). "George Bush's Big Brother". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
^ ^a ^b James Poulos. "Obama Administration Anti-Leak Scheme Shows Precrime and Total Information Awareness Go Hand In Hand". Forbes. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
^ ^a ^b John Horgan. "U.S. Never Really Ended Creepy "Total Information Awareness" Program". Scientific American. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
^ John Markoff (November 22, 2002). "Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans". The New York Times.
^ ^a ^b Total Information Awareness (TIA), Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
^ Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope By Chalmers Johnson ISBN 0-8050-9303-6 "Congress's action did not end the Total Information Awareness program. The National Security Agency secretly decided to continue it through its private contractors."
^ "Total/Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA): Is It Truly Dead?". Electronic Frontier Foundation (official website). 2003. Archived from the original on 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
^ Harris, Shane (Feb 23, 2006). "TIA Lives On". National Journal. Archived from the original on May 28, 2011. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
^ "U.S. Still Mining Terror Data". Wired News. February 23, 2004.

[1] "Information Awareness Office". DARPA. Archived from the original on 2 August 2002.

[2] Tim Dowling. "What does the Prism logo mean?". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2013. The Prism logo is slightly more opaque than the one used by the US government's Information Awareness Office, which boasted an all-seeing eye atop a pyramid, casting a golden light across an adjacent planet Earth.

[3] Hendrik Hertzberg (December 9, 2002). "Too Much Information". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 November 2013. The Information Awareness Office's official seal features an occult pyramid topped with mystic all-seeing eye, like the one on the dollar bill. Its official motto is "Scientia Est Potentia," which doesn't mean "science has a lot of potential." It means "knowledge is power."

[4] Jonathan Turley (November 17, 2002). "George Bush's Big Brother". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 December 2013.

[jamespoulosforbes-5] James Poulos. "Obama Administration Anti-Leak Scheme Shows Precrime and Total Information Awareness Go Hand In Hand". Forbes. Retrieved 19 October 2013.

[sciamtia-6] John Horgan. "U.S. Never Really Ended Creepy "Total Information Awareness" Program". Scientific American. Retrieved 19 October 2013.

[nytimes-markoff-7] John Markoff (November 22, 2002). "Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans". The New York Times.

[epic-tia-home-8] Total Information Awareness (TIA), Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

[9] Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope By Chalmers Johnson ISBN 0-8050-9303-6 "Congress's action did not end the Total Information Awareness program. The National Security Agency secretly decided to continue it through its private contractors."

[eff-tia-funding-10] "Total/Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA): Is It Truly Dead?". Electronic Frontier Foundation (official website). 2003. Archived from the original on 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2009-03-15.

[tia-lives-on-11] Harris, Shane (Feb 23, 2006). "TIA Lives On". National Journal. Archived from the original on May 28, 2011. Retrieved 2009-03-16.

[wired-still-mining-12] "U.S. Still Mining Terror Data". Wired News. February 23, 2004.

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