Anti-crime database losing support.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis

Several states have pulled out of the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (Matrix), the anti-crime computer database that some say threatens citizens' privacy rights. Just five of the 16 states that had originally signed up to participate remain involved in Matrix.

Started in 2002 in Florida with $12 million in initial federal funding, Matrix links government records with up to 20 billion records in databases held by Seisint Inc. The Seisint records include details on property and Internet domain names that individuals own, along with their address history, utility connections, bankruptcies, liens, and business filings, according to a report by the Georgia State Office of Homeland Security. The system allows states to share criminal, prison, and vehicle information with each other and cross-reference it with Seisint's database records.

The American Civil Liberties Union has complained that Matrix could be used by state and federal investigators to compile dossiers on people who have never been suspected of a crime. The same critics have called Matrix a state-run version of Total Information Awareness, a program that was being developed in the Pentagon to search an even broader array of databases for patterns of terrorist activity. Congress froze financing for that...