Blog #10- EOTO terms and Concepts

                                          Total Information Awareness (TIA)

What is Total Information Awareness(TIA)?

Total Information Awareness was a program created by the United States government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency known as the DARPA. The program was created in the early 2000s. The program's goal was to develop technologies that would allow for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating large amounts of information about individuals to identify potential terrorist threats. 

The program was controversial and faced criticism from privacy advocates and civil liberty groups who were concerned about the potential for the program to violate privacy rights and lead to unwarranted surveillance of people. "In 2003 congress passed legislation that ended funding for the program".

What might be good/bad about the TIA?

The concept of Total Information Awareness was definitely controversial and few people argued that the TIA could have good benefits in terms of national security and law enforcement. An example of this is the TIA could help authorities identify and prevent terrorist attacks or other criminal activities before they happen. Another good thing about the TIA is that it could improve coordination and information sharing with different agencies and branches of government. Some of the downsides of the TIA is definitely an invasion of privacy due to the TIA collecting big amounts of your personal data which can include financial records, medical history, and what you look up online. Another downside is the potential for misuse or abuse by people who have access to the information like law enforcement officials who may use it to target individuals. The last downside of TIA that is major is the chilling effect on free speech and expression. People may speak less out loud about controversial topics if they think they are being monitored or tracked. 

How might TIA affect different people differently? 

Total Information Awareness could affect different people differently depending on a range of factors such as age, ethnicity, and personal circumstances. TIA could impact marginalized groups more especially ethnic minorities and those with lower socioeconomic status who are already subject to discrimination. Such groups may be targeted more by law enforcement based on race, religion, and other characteristics which could worsen their exclusion. Another way this could affect people differently is people who are normally concerned about their privacy or who participate in activities that they consider to be controversial may be more negatively impacted by the TIA. The fact that people are being monitored or tracked may cause them to feel uncomfortable leading to an effect on free speech and expression. Which people want to be able to express what they want without feeling like they have to watch what they say due to TIA. 

How does this affect me? My generation? 

After learning about Total Information Awareness this certain topic could have affected me by making me feel uncomfortable about being tracked and looked at being able not to say things freely would have had an effect on me but now that this program is no longer in use I feel very free to be able to talk about what I want without feeling like im being watched or tracked by the government just for them to be able to see if I was a terrorist or not. I see the potential of this program but the way they could have gone about it could have been different and then maybe people would have liked the program more and actually wanted it to be a thing that the government used more frequently. I like the thought of security from terrorists and criminals doing bad things but there definitely could be a different security technology to use than this. Privacy is a big thing that people want and shouldn't be afraid to do certain things due to the government watching our every move my generation would hate the thought of this program due to invasion of privacy and would not go for it at all. My generation likes to do things without thinking and if this program was still a thing I would sadly say there would be problems and lots of debates so im glad in 2003 this program died.