The Total Information Awareness Program(TIA) is no more! Congress passed a bill Thursday dismantling the program and the office.

The House vote Wednesday was 407-15. The Senate voted to pass it Thursday, 95 to 0.

Under the legislation, TIA -- which had been housed in the Pentagon -- would be shut down and the government forbidden from using the technology envisioned by TIA in any other successor program.

....Had it been implemented, the ACLU said TIA would have used data-mining technology to sift through vast amounts of personal transactional data in the unproven hope of discerning obscure patterns that would suggest terrorist activity is intended or ongoing. The ACLU said that this approach would not only violate privacy, but would make all Americans terrorism suspects as the system would have scoured credit card purchases, travel records, financial statements and even Internet viewing habits.

The ACLU also reminds us to remain vigilant:

The bill, however, does authorize a separate, classified program for “processing, analysis, and collaboration tools for counter terrorism foreign intelligence” but the legislation prohibits its domestic use against Americans. “While TIA may be dead and buried,” Edgar added, “we must remain on a constant lookout for other super-snoop programs.”

Patriot Watch congratulates Sen. Ron Wyden and links to this press release from his office.