Data retention: better live alone

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andy Oram <andyo () oreilly com>
Date: June 5, 2006 3:54:54 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Data retention: better live alone

http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2006/06/ 
data_retention_better_live_alo.html

Most young people nowadays can't afford their own apartments, even if
they have jobs. Roommates are the order of the day in all the major
cities I know about. But be careful--if you "once shared a phone
number of residence with a known terrorist," according to the most
recent InformationWeek (June 5, 2006, p. 26) you could become a target
for a government investigation.

InformationWeek is reporting here on a data mining system offered by
Systems Research Development, which was partly funded by the CIA, was
recently acquired by IBM, and is used by unmentioned government
agencies. The features discussed in the short article look like
pretty simple database matches.

Given that many people arrested for terrorism are later released, it's
unclear how dangerous any one "known terrorist" really is. And if the
police don't know, you certainly won't know when you shack up with
one. I wonder whether the SRD system also checks for a shared IP
address--you'd better look into who's sharing your connection point to
you Internet Service Provider!


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