*Greens oppose DoD recruiting database*

[nosmokes]

PACIFIC GREEN PARTY OF OREGON
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate publication
Contacts: Joanne Cvar, PGP Media Committee, [e-mail], 541-563-3615
Chris Henry: PGP Co-Chair. [e-mail]
Teresa Keane: PGP Co-Chair [e-mail]
PGP: http://www.pacificgreens.org
USGP: http://www.gp.org

*Greens oppose DoD recruiting database*

The Pacific Green Party of Oregon (PGP) has joined the American Friends
Service Committee, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and other civil
rights organizations across the nation in opposing the creation and use
of a new recruiting database by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
According to the official notice of the program, the purpose of the
database, called the Joint Advertising and Market Research Studies
(JAMRS), is “to provide a single central facility within the DoD to
compile, process, and distribute files of individuals who meet age and
minimum school requirements for military service.”

The JAMRS database combines the personal information files of 30 million
U.S. residents ages 16-25 obtained since 2002 from high schools and
colleges, as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, with new
information which will be obtained through a contract with a commercial
direct marketing company called Benow, recently acquired by the credit
reporting company Equifax. This private firm has no privacy or security
policies posted on its website.

The new database will include Social Security numbers, grade-point
averages and educational information, height, weight, e-mail addresses,
phone numbers and ethnicity. Additional information from commercial data
brokers and state drivers’ license records will be collected and
compiled. More information on the DoD database is available at
http://epic.org/privacy/student/doddatabase.html.

A letter opposing the creation and use of this database was delivered to
the chairs and ranking members of key House and Senate committees on
Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005. The letter states, in part: “The creation of
JAMRS is in conflict with the Privacy Act, which was passed by Congress
to reduce the government's collection of personal information on
Americans. The goal of JAMRS is to increase recruitment and retention by
the military services. However, JAMRS goes beyond military recruitment
by proposing market research studies such as ad tracking, attitudes of
mothers towards military service and polls of young adults.”

Privacy advocates claim the program is an effort by the Pentagon to
circumvent the law by turning to a private firm to do the work, and that
using database marketers for military recruitment is inappropriate.

The PGP does not oppose the choice to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces but
does strongly object to the creation of the JAMRS database and the
collection by the government of personal information on Americans. It is
possible to “opt-out” of the military recruitment, but not from JAMRS as
a whole.

[mike_c]

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Good news!