Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange
Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (abbreviated MATRIX , English for "Multi- State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange ") was an American search system that combined personal information from government databases and from databases of private information service providers. This information should be made available to the authorities for them to search for anomalies that would indicate potential terrorist or criminal activity.
The project was discontinued in April 2005. However, parts of the system continued to be made available to law enforcement agencies in some US states.
The code and methodology of the MATRIX program system is re-used by the ADVISE project of the United States Department of Homeland Security .
Emergence
MATRIX was developed by Hank Asher , a wealthy entrepreneur and founder of Seisint Inc. According to press reports, shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he approached the Florida police in order to provide a high-performance system free of charge to the investigative authorities Analyzing relevant data / information should serve as a tool.
In January 2002 the Florida pilot started. MATRIX was based on the FACTS system. FACTS is another proprietary system from Seisint Inc.
When the Information Awareness Office , also known as Total Information Awareness (later: Terrorism Information Awareness), was blocked by the congress in the summer of 2003 and Admiral John Poindexter resigned resignedly, MATRIX was the ideal means to continue the project.
The database was operated by Seisint Inc to avoid violating the 1974 Privacy Act. Seisint Inc was acquired by LexisNexis on September 1, 2004 for $ 775 million .
MATRIX was already being used in Florida when the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security made funds available to see if expansion across the country would be possible. Of the 13 states originally involved in the project, some withdrew for financial reasons, others for personal rights considerations.
Jurisdiction
The Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) was responsible for the MATRIX project . The website is already offline again. Seisint Inc was responsible for the technical part of the project.
Death
In April 2005 the project was officially abandoned. But it might not be the actual ending. On April 12, 2005, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a Request for Information on Information Services to support Domestic Security and Criminal Investigations .