What is the MATRIX? A privacy advocate's worst nightmare

Ohio joins multistate antiterror database
Police can search billions of records; privacy invasion, some say

Dayton Daily News
February 04, 2004

COLUMBUS -- Despite privacy concerns, Ohio is one of six states signed up to use powerful computer technology that will allow police to search billions of records to root out criminal and terrorist suspects with lightning speed.

MATRIX — Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange — ties together government and commercial databases for authorities to quickly comb through. The data is already accessible to law enforcement but MATRIX allows police to search it quickly, retrieving information detectives normally laboriously gather in investigating a crime, said James V. Canepa, chief deputy Ohio Attorney General.

"This is all stuff that is currently available publicly. It's just done more efficiently," Canepa said.

MATRIX compiles information from state, federal and private databases including: motor vehicle registrations, drivers licenses, criminal and prison records, voter registrations, digitized photos, property ownership, tax and utility records, phone books, corporate registrations, sexual offenders, address information from credit histories, and more.

Exactly what data is included depends on what participating states decide to submit. Ohio is ready to supply criminal histories and is studying whether to add Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and highway patrol records.

Christine Link, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said MATRIX will allow the government to assemble electronic dossiers on millions of innocent Americans. It shifts suspicion from individuals to everyone, she said.

The ACLU said MATRIX is akin to the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness large-scale database. That project, now scrapped, would have allowed authorities to shift through scores of personal information, looking for patterns that might identify terrorists.

Attorney General Jim Petro has decided to add Ohio's criminal histories to the MATRIX database, but it is up to Gov. Bob Taft whether records under his control are added, said Petro spokeswoman Kim Norris. Petro's office signed an agreement Jan. 23 to participate, she said.

The state Department of Public Safety, which is under Taft's control, is studying whether to add Bureau of Motor Vehicles and highway patrol records and if so, whether any information should be held back, said Susan Raber, public safety spokeswoman.

Once system security issues are worked out, a handful of Ohio's 975 law enforcement agencies will initially have access to MATRIX. Eventually, all Ohio police agencies would be able to tap into it for law enforcement queries.

MATRIX is funded with $12 million from U.S. Justice and Homeland Security departments.

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