Anti-Terrorist Data Mining Doesn't Work Very Well

Presto Vivace and others sent us this CNet report on a just-released NRC report coming to the conclusion, which will surprise no one here, that data mining doesn't work very well. It's all those darn false positives. The submitter adds, "Any chance we could go back to probable cause?" "A report scheduled to be released on Tuesday by the National Research Council, which has been years in the making, concludes that automated identification of terrorists through data mining or any other mechanism 'is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable as a goal of technology development efforts.' Inevitable false positives will result in 'ordinary, law-abiding citizens and businesses' being incorrectly flagged as suspects. The whopping 352-page report, called 'Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists,' amounts to [be] at least a partial repudiation of the Defense Department's controversial data-mining program called Total Information Awareness, which was limited by Congress in 2003."

Comments

Well, that's a shocker!

[frank_adrian314159]

In other news, water is wet, the Pope is Catholic, and Ursines excrete solid wastes in silviculture.

Re:Bets....?

[Gat0r30y]

That leads me to think that maybe the primary function of government is to pretend to fail.

Why would they need to pretend? They seem to be quite practiced at failing for real to me.

Re:Profiles also work in reverse

[jbeaupre]

For example, never ever have 2.1 kids. It's suspiciously normal. Go with 2, maybe 3, to blend in.

Jesus Christ. They should have just asked Google.

[Colin Smith]

I mean look:

A terrorist:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=A%20terrorist&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Not a terrorist:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=Not+a+terrorist&btnG=Search+Images

Problem solved. NEXT!
 

Re:In other news,

[Anonymous Coward]

But politicians don't really care about it. What would be nice is a list of politicians who voted in favor of things that were later found to be unconstitutional. Each time a politician votes for something unconstitutional, they score a point. For every 5 points they score they have to go hunting with Dick Cheney once.

Try "chuck"

[EmbeddedJanitor]

It probably uses Google search engine or similar. Tell TSA-guy you're German and the "'s are part of your name.

At $8/hr TSA-guy isn't paid to think.