GAO Studies U.S. Government Data Mining

securitas writes "Total Information Awareness is alive and thriving. eWEEK's Caron Carlson reports on a new General Accounting Office study that says TIA-style data mining programs are rampant in federal agencies with 199 projects at 52 of 128 agencies. The Defense Intelligence Agency/DoD is the single largest user of these data mining projects (eg. Verity K2 Enterprise). The story was first reported by Reuters' Andy Sullivan (ZDNet UK mirror) and the NYT's Robert Pear, who wrote that at least 122 projects used personally identifying information like names, e-mail addresses, Social Security and driver's license numbers. The 'actual numbers are likely to be much higher' because the report excludes classified projects. Wired News' Kim Zetter writes that, in addition to government databases, federal agencies mine private databases of credit rating agencies, bank account numbers, student loan applications, etc. This week the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) released a report with privacy guidelines for data mining technology (PDF) development and use. Guidelines include data anonymization, government data access authorization and audit trails. Cynthia (Cindy) Webb's 'Total Information Dilemma' at the Washington Post is an excellent survey of media coverage of TIA, MATRIX and the GAO report 'Data Mining: Federal Efforts Cover a Wide Range of Uses' (mirror, both in PDF format). More at GCN, GovExec and the Guardian/AP."

Comments

Re:Here's the difference...

[TiloB]

In Germany (no, data does not search you) it is forbidden to gather more information than necessary. We call that principle "Datensparsamkeit" (data frugality).

And it is not allowed to give information away or even sell them (that is only allowed for public available information)

Re:Insider

[meringuoid]

I for one welcome the chance to be your data mining overlord!

Pah. You won't be. My guess is that some time around November 2009, Google's server farm will reach a critical mass and achieve self-awareness. It already knows everything - all it lacks is a mind. It will probably have enslaved the human race by Christmas.