Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:15 a.m. July 14, 2006, to correct that Zoe Baird and members of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, not the Board of Directors, met with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The Markle Foundation released its third and final report today on how to improve information sharing while protecting civil liberties and enhancing national security.
The Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age released the report, “Mobilizing Information to Prevent Terrorism: Accelerating Development of a Trusted Information-Sharing Environment,” at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C.
The report provides specific ideas for implementing a Trusted Information-Sharing Environment (ISE), in which users, policy-makers and the public trust the information collected and the system that collects it, said Jim Barksdale, task force co-chairman and partner and co-founder of the Barksdale Group.
The report calls for renewed leadership by the president and Congress to accelerate the process that is currently under way. It makes suggestions including the creation of:
- An authorized use standard to determine who should have access to information the government has lawfully collected based on how they will use the information rather than its place of collection.
- A risk management approach to classification that does a better job of balancing the risks of inappropriate disclosure with those of failing to share information.
- Clear guidelines for sharing information while protecting civil liberties.
- Technology that facilitates sharing while protecting security and privacy, such as tear lines and audit technology.
- An effective dispute-resolution process for agencies that disagree on how much information to share with one another.
- An Information-Sharing Institute, where experts would collect knowledge about information sharing and provide training to promulgate useful technologies and policies.
Almost five years after the 2001 terrorist attacks, public trust in information-sharing processes is less than it was before the attacks, said Jim Dempsey, policy director at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Agencies that trust one another to do their jobs are more likely to share information and use what comes from outside sources, he said.“Not enough has been done to date to implement ISE,” said Zoe Baird, task force co-chairwoman and president of the foundation. “We need to transform our government faster.”
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