New GAO Report on Government Data Mining

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Barry Steinhardt <Bsteinhardt () aclu org>
Date: May 27, 2004 1:10:03 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: New GAO Report on Government Data Mining

Dave,


A new report on "data mining" , which is being released today by the 
General Accounting Office, reveals that practice is widespread in the 
the Federal government and that there are, at least, four programs that 
may be accessing and analyzing private-sector databases in ways that 
are reminiscent of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness Program. 
The report was prepared at the request of Senator Daniel Akaka of 
Hawaii.

The GAO's investigation uncovered 199 government uses of the 
statistical analysis techniques known as data mining, 54 of which use 
private-sector data.  Such information could include any data held in 
corporate or other private hands, including credit-card records and 
Internet logs.

In an appendix to its report, the investigators listed those programs, 
providing a brief description of each and indicating its purpose and 
whether it contained personal information, or made use of 
private-sector data and data from other government agencies.

The 4 programs of special concern are:

*       Verity K2 Enterprise - Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Mines 
data "to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to 
foreign terrorism activities." (Page 30 of GAO report)
*       Analyst Notebook I2 - Department of Homeland Security.  
"Correlates events and people to specific information." (p. 44)
*       PATHFINDER - DIA.  "Can compare and search multiple large 
databases quickly" and "analyze government and private sector 
databases." (p. 30)
*       Case Management Data Mart - DHS. "Assists in managing law 
enforcement cases" Using private-sector data. (p. 44)

According to the GAO descriptions, all four programs draw on 
private-sector databases, contain personally identifiable information, 
and appear to constitute dragnets on the general population.

Of course, many of the other programs listed by the GAO raise questions 
about how they are using information, including private-sector 
information - and the GAO's list did not include programs run by the 
Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, which did 
not respond to its requests for information.

The ACLU, together with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and 
the Center for Democracy and Technology, today sent a joint letter to 
Senator Akaka praising his efforts and the report.

The joint letter to Sen. Akaka is online at 
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=15858&c=130

The GAO should be on their web site shortly at http://www.gao.gov/.

I hope you will find this of interest for IP.

Barry Steinhardt

Director Technology and Liberty
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
125 Broad Street
NYC 10004
www.aclu.org


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