H.R. 3815 would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to make full and efficient use of open source information to develop and disseminate open source homeland security information products.

== Detailed Summary ==

<summary>
Homeland Security Open Source Information Enhancement Act of 20072008 - Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that DepartmentSecurity, in coordination with the Assistant Deputy Director of Homeland Security (DHS) components responsibleNational Intelligence for information sharingOpen Source and infrastructure protection make full and efficient usethe Director of National Intelligence, to establish an open source information to developcollection, analysis, and disseminate open source products.dissemination program within the Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

Requires the Secretary to: (1) ensureDefines &quot;open source information&quot; to mean publicly available information that DHS makescan be lawfully obtained by a member of the public by request, purchase, or observation. Requires the program to make full and efficient use of suchopen source information to analyze U.S. critical infrastructure nodes from the perspective of terroristsdevelop and disseminate open source alerts, warnings, and other activities with a nexusintelligence products relating to terrorism using publicly available information; and (2) share the unclassified results with appropriate federal, state, local, tribal, and private-sector officials.mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Directs: Requires the Secretary to: (1) ensure that DHS makes full and efficient use of such information in intelligence analysis to identify terrorist threats; and (2) make DHS open source information available to federal, state, local, tribal, and private-sector entities, using systems and networks for the dissemination of homeland security information.

Directs: (1) the Secretary to ensure that the manner in which open source information is gathered and disseminated complies with the Constitution, the Privacy Act of 1974, the E-Government Act of 2002, and all other relevant federal laws; and (2) the Chief Privacy Officer of DHS to include in such Officer's annual report a description of the typessubmitted to Congress an assessment of personally identifiable information collectedcompliance by DHS intelligence components;federal departments and (3) the Inspector General of DHSagencies with laws relating to audit the use and dissemination of such information to evaluate the effectiveness of DHS activities and to ensure consistency with existing federal open source information guidelines.information.
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== Status of the Legislation ==

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Latest Major Action: 9/24/2008: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 1051.
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== Points in Favor ==

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== Points Against ==

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