FC: Feds craft homeless tracking system, from Chris Hoofnagle

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

----- Forwarded message from Chris Hoofnagle <hoofnagle@epic.org> -----

From: Chris Hoofnagle <hoofnagle@epic.org>
Subject: Homeless Tracking System Guidelines
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 13:16:57 -0400

Hey Declan,

I've been doing some work on Homeless Management Information Systems 
(HMIS), and I thought it would be of interest to Politechbot 
readers.

HMIS are database systems intended to track recipients of benefits 
in order to assess the number of persons receiving care, and to 
improve efficiency of services to the poor.  There are benefits to 
this tracking, but the proposed implementation is extremely privacy 
invasive.  For instance, under the proposed guidelines, 
federally-funded care providers would have to collect SSNs, names, 
date of birth etc.  This information would be linked to health 
(mental and physical) info, shared amongst care centers, and stored 
for seven years.  National security and Secret Service Agents can 
get the information by merely asking for it.  

Just imagine how this system could be used to retaliate against the 
homeless, say in advance of the a major public event such as the 
Olympics.  Or imagine how you could become enrolled in the 
system--let's say you were in Manhattan last week during the power 
outage and you had nowhere to go, except for a homeless shelter.  
You'd be in the system for 7 years.

Anyway, I have a page on this at 
http://www.epic.org/privacy/poverty/

HUD's HMIS page, along with the guidelines, are at 
http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/hmis/index.cfm

Public comment is open until September 22, 2003, but HUD is not 
providing any means for electronic submissions.  While they are 
advanced enough to collect all this data electronically on the 
homeless, your comments must arrive in the mail for irradiation and 
then perhaps review by the agency.

C


----- End forwarded message -----



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