[3007] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] The USA's expensive "BioWatch" fiasco
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PRIVACY Forum mailing list)
Sat Jul 7 12:30:04 2012
Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2012 09:21:27 -0700
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The USA's expensive "BioWatch" fiasco
http://j.mp/Ne1hcU (L.A. Times)
"BioWatch had failed - again. President George W. Bush announced the
system's deployment in his 2003 State of the Union address, saying it
would "protect our people and our homeland." Since then, BioWatch air
samplers have been installed inconspicuously at street level and atop
buildings in cities across the country - ready, in theory, to detect
pathogens that cause anthrax, tularemia, smallpox, plague and other
deadly diseases. But the system has not lived up to its billing. It
has repeatedly cried wolf, producing dozens of false alarms in Los
Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis, Phoenix, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay
Area and elsewhere, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. Worse,
BioWatch cannot be counted on to detect a real attack, according to
confidential government test results and computer modeling."
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
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Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
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Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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