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What Medical Tests Should Teach Us About the NSA Surveillance Program

Posted by timothy on from the starbucks-should-put-franchises-in-transit-zones dept.

First time accepted submitter Davak writes "In many ways finding the small amount of terrorists within the United States is like screening a population of people for a rare disease. A physician explains why collecting excessive data is actually dangerous. Each time a test is run, the number of people incorrectly identified quickly dwarfs the correct matches. Just like in medicine, being incorrectly labelled has serious consequences."

2 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. well duh. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the NSA is not concerned about infringing on people's rights and civil liberties. if we are going with medical analogies, i think the NSA would rather amputate than treat an infection.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  2. Re:Slashdot Propaganda Machine Working Overtime by ericloewe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Where's the "-1: conspiracy theorist" option?