Internet activists are turning the tables on John Poindexter, the controversial Pentagon official who is creating a global database surveillance system that could collect massive amounts of private, personal information. Find out what sparked the Web campaign, tonight on "Tech Live."

Poindexter, a retired Navy admiral, runs the Information Awareness Office (IAO) at the supersecret Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Poindexter has argued that his proposed surveillance system is needed to fight global terrorism.

But activists have created webpages to invade Poindexter's own privacy, posting his home phone number, his home address, his birthday, information about his family, ways to find his Social Security number, and even a satellite photo of his neighborhood.

Web of snoops

One website, Break Your Chains!, features the John Poindexter Awareness Office. Stephen DeVoy, a computer scientist in Texas, created the site last month.

"I created the website to draw attention to the dangers of the IAO," he said. "I also created the website to make those working for the IAO understand why we find their project offensive. Putting them in a similar situation might send this message home."

DeVoy says his site is getting 2,000 hits a day. Visitors are asked to submit any personal information they obtain on Poindexter, such as where he shops and travels. One visitor to the website reported seeing Poindexter at a Sharper Image store in a Delaware mall, looking over "various radio and high tech items." Another reported seeing him at a holiday office party. "He always look pretty shifty," the visitor wrote.

Mary Titus is an Internet activist in New York who created a page that satirizes Poindexter and features an Information Violation Office. It can be found at Fallout Shelter News.

"It's easy to acquire [Poindexter's] own personal information and publicly give that out. And the gauntlet has basically been thrown down," Titus said. "People across the Internet have quickly picked this up."

Admiral on the run

The campaign already has forced Poindexter to change his home phone number.

"We're sorry. The party you are calling is not available at this time," says a recorded voice when the number from DeVoy's website is dialed.

Also, since the campaign began, the IAO has stripped its website of its controversial "Knowledge Is Power" logo and Poindexter's biography.

"I think they're getting to him," said Declan McCullagh, a Washington, DC, reporter and Web writer who is following the story. "I have not seen any other federal bureaucrat targeted with this amount of interest before."

Poindexter and DARPA won't comment on the websites or the harassment campaign.

Poindexter was controversial even before he joined DARPA. He was a National Security Advisor to President Reagan and was convicted in the Iran/Contra affair of lying to Congress, though his conviction was later overturned.