Joint Advertising Marketing Research & Studies (JAMRS) is a program run by the United States Department of Defense to maintain sufficient levels of voluntary service in the United States Armed Forces. This objective is facilitated by the collection of information about U.S. persons of enlistment age, surveys, and other market research in a central database made available to military recruiters.

JAMRS Recruiting Database

JAMRS manages a database (subcontracted by

Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the "Big Thr ...

) of personal information of over 30 million United States citizens aged 16–25 for the purposes of military recruitment. Stored information includes, but is not limited to: name, address, email addresses, cell phone numbers,

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

, education, and employment information. The database is sourced from public and private organizations such as the

Selective Service System The Selective Service System (SSS) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States government that maintains information on U.S. Citizenship of the Unite ...

, Departments of Motor Vehicles and

College Board The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...

. It is also used by the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies for research purposes and for the Military Draft. The names and contact information of all registrants in the

are distributed to JAMRS on a quarterly basis."

Opt-out

Individuals whose information is present in the JAMRS database can opt out of having that information shared with recruiters, but it cannot be permanently removed.

Legal challenges

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense in 2006 (Hanson v. Rumsfeld) claiming the unconstitutionality of the JAMRS database. They succeeded in getting a settlement forcing the DOD to stop collecting Social Security Numbers, keep student information for only three years, restrict the ages of students included in the database, and maintain better privacy standards for student information. Also, the Department of the Defense clarified the procedure for opting out of the database. The Department of Defense updated those procedures in January 2011.

Futures Survey

This survey was distributed by

postal mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...

to a randomly selected group of 16- to 24-year-olds. Information requested included education, career plans, and attitudes toward the military. $2.00 was included with the survey and participants were promised an additional $5.00 upon completion.

References

Government databases in the United States Military recruitment {{US-gov-stub