FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 2005

Contact:

Lillie Coney
EPIC Associate Director
(202) 483-1140 ext. 111
coney@epic.org

    COALITION URGES END TO COMMERCIAL DATABASE FOR RECRUITING
           Groups Say that Defense Department Effort
                  Violates Federal Privacy Act

Washington, DC -- The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and
more than 100 local, state, and national organizations today urged
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to end the "Joint Advertising and
Market Research Studies" Recruiting Database.

The groups cited the broad exemptions to federal privacy laws that would
allow the Defense Department to disclose personal information to others
without an individual's consent or knowledge.  The proposed uses include
disclosures to law enforcement; state and local tax authorities;
employment queries from other agencies; and disclosure of records to
foreign authorities.

The database would include name, date of birth, gender, address,
telephone, e-mail address, Social Security Number, ethnicity, high
school, education level, college, and intended field of study for more
than 30 million Americans who are 16-25 years old.  This system of
records would go so far as to record parents' attitudes about military
recruitment.

The letter to the Secretary of Defense concluded that "because of the
potential for abuse and the threat to the personal privacy rights of a
generation of American youth," the Department of Defense should
immediately end the program.

The organizations signing the letter included the American Civil
Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee, the Bill of
Rights Defense Committee, LeaveMyChildAlone.org, the Liberty Coalition,
Rock the Vote, and the Rutherford Institute.

"We join as a broad coalition of diverse interest with only one goal: to
protect the privacy rights of a generation of young people living in
this nation," said Lillie Coney, Associate Director of EPIC.

--------------

A conference call to discuss the letter will take place on Tuesday,
October 18, 2005 at 1:30 P.M. EDT.  Contact Lillie Coney for call
details.

--------------

Coalition Letter Opposing Defense Dept. Database:

     http://www.privacycoalition.org/nododdatabase/letter.html

Background on DOD Recruiting Database:

     http://www.epic.org/privacy/student/doddatabase.html

Graphic (No attribution required):

     http://www.epic.org/graphics/iwantyou_sm.jpg

.