After the Sept. 11 attacks, national security became a major concern. To protect the United States from terrorism, the Bush administration has created the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However, this new act threatens to undermine the privacy of Americans.

The act, which is supposed to protect American and international citizens, was passed by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and signed by President Bush on Nov. 25. The new Department of Homeland Security will combine 22 existing agencies and will cost approximately $40 billion to create.

One aspect of this new act, the Total Information Awareness program, has been the cause of much concern. This program is designed to monitor behavior patterns of international and American citizens in order to identify possible terrorists.

To do this, the program will be allowed to gather public and private data and input the information into one centralized database. Under the Homeland Security Act, the federal government will have access to anyone's e-mails, credit card purchases, Internet use, and phone and bank records.

While no one would argue that national security is important, this kind of government access to personal information is an invasion of privacy.

The Homeland Security Act also has an agency that is in charge of developing new technologies to collect even more information on citizens. The Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency will fund research and development of technologies like special sensors to detect chemical-weapons attacks and ways to make computers safer from cyber attacks.

Supporters of the new act say that it contains specific provisions to ensure that the department does not invade the privacy of ci-tizens. There will be a privacy officer who will be in charge of monitoring the new agency and making sure that it does not violate privacy protections. This officer will report to Congress.

Even with these provisions, there are still concerns. Privacy advocates fear that giving the government this kind of access, even under the guise of national security, will only threaten the civil liberties of citizens. With this act, the government will not only be gathering private information, but will be compiling personality profiles of each American citizen in the hopes of detecting would-be terrorists.

While identifying terrorists before they have the chance to strike is very necessary, it is hard to see how giving up this kind of freedom will help with national security. Even for those of us with nothing to hide, it is disturbing to think that there could be a government employee somewhere with access to our most private information.

When he signed this bill, President Bush said, "the Homeland Security Act of 2002 takes the next critical steps in defending our country. The continuing threat of terrorism, the threat of mass murder on our own soil, will be met with a unified, effective response."

American citizens have always lived in an open society where we are free to enjoy the rights that America provides. It is a shame that this "response" to terrorism will take away some of the freedoms that this great country was founded on.

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