Databases

WASHINGTON -- A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former government officials briefed on the program. It is not clear why the database searches, known as data mining, raised such a legal debate. But such databases, compiled by American companies and stored in the United States, contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans.

On the Internet, as Martha and the Vandellas would say, you have "nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide."Just ask Norma Mott Tillman, author of "How to Find Almost Anyone, Anywhere" (Rutledge Hill Press, $14.95). A private investigator for more than a decade, Tillman thinks the Internet is the world's greatest tool for locating anyone in the United States.As a gumshoe, Tillman has an enviable record. Over the years, the resident of Nashville, Tenn., has located more than 1,000 missing persons by conventional methods: poring over courthouse records, knocking on doors, wearing out shoe leather.

HCIA Inc., the Baltimore health data company, said yesterday that it has formed a relationship with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. to develop uses for U.S. health care data collected for the pharmaceutical giant."

Digex Inc., the Beltsville-based Internet service provider, has completed its acquisition of Electronic Press Services, a Boston firm that makes software to connect World Wide Web sites to large corporate databases.Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Digex executives have said the capabilities of EPS' software will help them make more versatile Web sites for customers who want to conduct retail sales or similar businesses online.EPS' 40 employees are expected to continue to work in Boston, Digex said when the deal was announced last month.

A quote was wrongly attributed in an article in Sunday's Business section. Corp. of Plano, Texas, said: "You need to do whatever is possible to get your resume up from the depths of that database to get it before a recruiter. If the 'must-have' is [familiarity with] Excel and the person doesn't have Excel on their resume, it won't come up."The Sun regrets the error.With 100,000 resumes spread around nine district offices, the process of keeping track of prospective employees had become unwieldy for Gaithersburg-based ManorCare Inc."

WASHINGTON -- In a move to head off restrictive legislation, more than a dozen companies that use cyberspace to disseminate personal information, including Social Security numbers, announced yesterday that they would voluntarily limit access to it.But first, consumers will have to take steps of their own to restrict that access, by requesting that their names be removed from databases of private information made available to the general public.The agreement involves 14 "look-up" service companies, including Lexis-Nexis, that account for about 90 percent of the traffic in personal information.

The Howard County library is selling a cutting-edge database service designed to enhance how the knowledge-hungry gather information while chiseling a new niche for area libraries.For $85 a year, 'Round the Clock DataNet can connect library patrons throughout Maryland to 27 business and educational databases 24 hours a day in their homes and offices.Heralded by library administrators as a one-of-a-kind information system, DataNet illustrates the changing role of libraries -- from free purveyors of books and periodicals to sellers of expanded technology used beyond the library's walls.

PeopleRonald Hudson of Ellicott City has been appointed director of information technology services in the Johns Hopkins School of Continuing Studies. He will supervise telecommunications and network management, systems development, access to electronic libraries and databases, user support services and computer training, and integration of information systems, resources and services.Pub Date: 12/08/96

The state Department of Education has contracted with a California company to make four major databases available for searches through Sailor, the state's online public information network.Information Access Co., a unit of the Canadian media firm Thomson Corp., will provide general reference, health reference, a general periodicals index and national newspaper index databases to Sailor, which is widely used in Maryland schools and libraries. These databases let users find article indexes and retrieve full texts of articles from magazines, newspapers, reference books and information pamphlets.

The buyer signed a contract on the northern Anne Arundel split foyer for $155,000. Closing would be in about a week, so Joe Minnich had only a couple of days to figure out if the home was really worth that much.Mr. Minnich, an appraiser for more than two decades, hadn't seen the house yet, but he was professionally skeptical as he pored over the multiple-list database he had dialed up from his Catonsville office.A split foyer in the same subdivision sold in July for $152,000. Another one sold for $149,000.

Maryland's senators are seeking answers from federal law enforcement, homeland security and intelligence officials about any information-sharing and contacts with the Maryland State Police regarding a spying operation that mistakenly identified protesters as terrorists in state and federal databases. In a letter yesterday, Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski, both Democrats, noted that cooperation among federal, state and local agencies is "critical" to national security. Nonetheless, they wrote, participants in nonviolent demonstrations should not end up in terrorism databases.

Anne Arundel County detectives investigating the fatal shooting of a Baltimore man in a neighborhood near Arundel Mills mall last month had two solid leads: In the minutes before his death, according to charging documents, Derrin Davon Thomas had been in contact with someone identified in his cell phone as Dip, and records showed Dip's phone had connected with nearby cell towers at the time of the killing. The next step was to figure out who Dip was. Detectives, tipped off that the shooter might have been from Prince George's County, turned to officers there, who searched a database of nicknames and other identifying features of known criminals and their associates.

WASHINGTON -- A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former government officials briefed on the program. It is not clear why the database searches, known as data mining, raised such a legal debate. But such databases, compiled by American companies and stored in the United States, contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans.

Most consumers know about credit reports that track how responsibly we handle our finances. But there are plenty of lesser-known databases also keeping tabs on us. And what they report to businesses may be critical to whether we can buy life or homeowner's insurance and at what price. They also may be a key factor in securing a job, apartment or checking account. "The world revolves around risk assessment," said Tena Friery, research director for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "Will you be a good employee?

Amid mounting frustration over a requirement that Medicaid recipients document their citizenship to obtain health benefits, the federal government has exempted nearly 8 million people from the new rule -- including about 150,000 elderly and disabled Marylanders. Maryland health officials, who learned of the exemptions yesterday, expressed relief while noting there are still more than 550,000 poor Marylanders they are scrambling to educate on the new requirements, which were to have gone into effect July 1. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has moved to delay implementation of the requirements until Sept.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday another step toward making sure doctors have the most accurate information about prescription drugs. Starting June 30, the agency will require manufacturers to provide the approved uses and serious side effects of their products in computer code that can be easily sent to physicians' computers and hand-held devices. Frustrated with the complexity of official sources of drug information, many physicians have turned to private services that present the information in an easy-to-use format.

As many as one in five voters in Maryland could be turned away from the polls because of certain restrictive standards required on voter registration applications, according to a spokesman for a national institution that studied voter databases. A national survey released yesterday by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law found that Maryland and six other states reject voter registration applications by people whose information does not match that on the state's motor vehicles or Social Security databases.

Md. Job Service offers workshop for job-seekers The Maryland Job Service, a division of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and the Howard County One-Stop Employment Center are offering a free two-day workshop for job-seekers. "Early Intervention" focuses on creating successful resumes and cover letters. Strategies for networking and interviewing will also be discussed. The workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow and Wednesday. Reservations are required.

CAPPS II WILL be delayed and significantly revised, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration announced last week, and that is a notable victory for the rights of Americans to keep their private lives free from sweeping surveillance by government computers every time they get on an airplane. But the battle over government use of invasive data-mining programs to gather reams of information about Americans continues, and much greater vigilance to protect Americans' privacy is still needed.

Two weeks ago, Chris Conover walked away from prison and a life sentence because new DNA testing had disproved prosecutors' contention that two of his hairs were found at the scene of a 1984 double murder. Now, Conover's lawyers and other legal experts are questioning why prosecutors are not taking steps to find out whose hair was, in fact, on the body of 18- year-old Lisa Lynn Brown. This is not the first time defense attorneys have been frustrated by what they see as Baltimore County prosecutors' reluctance to re-examine DNA evidence after it has overturned a conviction.