Three cheers for Senator Russ Feingold.

Business Week reports that there is growing opposition on the Hill to the Pentagon's proposed Total Information Awareness Program. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) plans to introduce legislation today to prevent TIA from being implemented, until Congress has had sufficient time to study the datamining issues.

"If fully implemented, TIA would link databases from sources such as credit card companies, medical insurers and motor vehicle departments for police convenience in hopes of snaring terrorists. It's funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)."

The program would track consumer purchases, such as "sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms, chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or chemical weapons. It would also combine consumer information with visa records, passports, arrest records or reports of suspicious activity given to law enforcement or intelligence services."