Mining for kids: Children can't opt out of Pentagon

[Kurt Albershardt]

recruitment database

<http://www.vermontguardian.com/national/012006/Pentagon.shtml>

Mining for kids: Children can't "opt out" of Pentagon recruitment
database
By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian

Parents cannot remove their children's names from a Pentagon database
that includes highly personal information used to attract military
recruits, the Vermont Guardian has learned.

The Pentagon has spent more than $70.5 million on market research,
national advertising, website development, and management of the
Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies (JAMRS) database ? a
storehouse of questionable legality that includes the names and
personal details of more than 30 million U.S. children and young
people between the ages of 16 and 23.

The database is separate from information collected from schools that
receive federal education money. The No Child Left Behind Act
requires schools to report the names, addresses, and phone numbers of
secondary school students to recruiters, but the law also specifies
that parents or guardians may write a letter to the school asking
that their children's names not be released.

However, many parents have reported being surprised that their
children are contacted anyway, according to a San Francisco-based
coalition called Leave My Child Alone (LMCA).

"We hear from a lot of parents who have often felt quite isolated
about it all and haven't been aware that this is happening all over
the country," said the group's spokeswoman, Felicity Crush.

Parents must contact the Pentagon directly to ask that their
children's information not be released to recruiters, but the data is
not removed from the JAMRS database, according to Lt. Col. Ellen
Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Instead, the information is moved to a suppression file, where it is
continuously updated with new data from private and government
sources and still made available to recruiters, Krenke said. It's
necessary to keep the information in the suppression file so the
Pentagon can make sure it's not being released, she said.

Krenke said the database is compiled using information from state
motor vehicles departments, the Selective Service, and data-mining
firms that collect and organize information from private companies.
In addition to names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and phone
numbers, the database may include cell phone numbers, e-mail
addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity, and subjects of interest.

...








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