Teen Database Worries Critics

Privacy advocates are objecting to the Pentagon's use of a database with files on millions of young people that the military says it needs for recruiting to help fill its ranks.

The data could be abused by the government or the private company that keeps it, the advocates contend. They also say there is no need for the information to include Social Security numbers, which could be used to steal someone's identity.
The military says the information will help steer it to potential recruits. Officials said the Social Security numbers are scrambled to prevent abuse and that the database only has been used for recruiting purposes.

The issue has surfaced as the regular Army — and the reserves of all four military branches — are having difficulty attracting recruits.

"The program is very important because it helps the recruiters be more effective to target qualified candidates for specific missions," a Defense Department spokeswoman, Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, said Thursday.

The Pentagon's Joint Advertising, Market Research and Studies Group has overseen the data since 2003, when it took over several recruiting databases managed separately by the military services.

The military says it collects the data itself. It has hired one company, Mullen, to manage the information. Mullen hired a subcontractor, BeNow, of Wakefield, Mass., to process the data.

Privacy advocates learned of the database only recently after the military, as required by law, put a notice in the Federal Register, a federal government publication, that it keeps such information.

David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel, said it was a "fair complaint" that the Pentagon should have given notice in 2003 instead of now.

The privacy group's concerns were reported in The Washington Post on Thursday.

According to the Federal Register notice, the data includes high school students age 16 to 18, college students, and people who have registered with the Selective Service, which would manage a military draft if it were reinstituted.

American men age 18 to 25 are required to register with Selective Service and provide their Social Security number.

The information kept on each person includes name, gender, address, birthday and, if available, the Social Security number, e-mail address, ethnicity, telephone number, high school, college, graduation dates, grade-point average, education level and military test scores, the notice in the register said.

It also includes a list of people who do not want to be contacted by the military for recruitment purposes, officials said.

The military obtains this information from several sources: individuals who volunteer it, state motor vehicle departments, commercial information brokers and the Selective Service system. The records are supposed to be destroyed five years after they are gathered, the military says.

Military officials said they have about 30 million names in this database. Chu said the services have been required by law to keep such information for recruiting purposes for at least 23 years.

Chu said later that the Social Security number is scrambled before it enters the database so it remains a unique number useful to identify an individual, but not that person's actual Social Security number.

The arrangement has many problems, said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, a director with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Hoofnagle was one of nine privacy advocates who filed a protest in the Federal Register notice.

For one, the military provides no guarantees it will not turn over the information to law enforcement, counterintelligence and other government agencies, Hoofnagle said in an interview. Krenke said the Pentagon does not do this; the Federal Register notice says the military retains the right to do so.

"Without your consent the Defense Department can take data out of the system and share it with other agencies," Hoofnagle said.

That the military buys some of its information from commercial vendors may violate the federal Privacy Act, Hoofnagle said. The government is required to contact an individual first to gather information before trying to obtain it from other outlets, he said.

Hoofnagle also raised concerns about BeNow's ability to safeguard the data, saying it would be safer if directly held by the government. A receptionist at BeNow referred all questions to the Pentagon.

The Pentagon office does not manage data the military services collect under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, officials said. A provision of this act requires school districts to provide military recruiters with student phone numbers and addresses or risk losing millions in federal education aid.

Parents or students 18 and over can "opt out" with a written request. Critics have challenged the measure on privacy grounds; others say it provides the military an unfair opportunity for the military to sway young minds.

By John J. Lumpkin