[privacy] New DHS Profiling Program Raises Privacy Concerns

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via The Washington Post.

[snip]

The Department of Homeland Security is testing a data-mining program that
would attempt to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information
about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations. Similar to
a Pentagon program killed by Congress in 2003 over concerns about civil
liberties, the new program could take effect as soon as next year.

But researchers testing the system are likely to already have violated
privacy laws by reviewing real information, instead of fake data, according
to a source familiar with a congressional investigation into the $42.5
million program.

Bearing the unwieldy name Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight
and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE), the program is on the cutting edge of
analytical technology that applies mathematical algorithms to uncover
hidden relationships in data. The idea is to troll a vast sea of
information, including audio and visual, and extract suspicious people,
places and other elements based on their links and behavioral patterns.

The privacy violation, described in a Government Accountability Office
report that is due out soon, was one of three by separate government data
mining programs, according to the GAO. "Undoubtedly there are likely to be
more," GAO Comptroller David M. Walker said in a recent congressional
hearing.

[snip]

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR200702270
1542.html

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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