Homeland Security revives supersnoop

The Washington Times ^ | March 8, 2007 | Audrey Hudson

[Anti-Bubba182]

Homeland Security officials are testing a supersnoop computer system that sifts through personal information on U.S. citizens to detect possible terrorist attacks, prompting concerns from lawmakers who have called for investigations.

The system uses the same data-mining process that was developed by the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIA) project that was banned by Congress in 2003 because of vast privacy violations.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation of the project called ADVISE -- Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement -- was requested by Rep. David R. Obey, Wisconsin Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

The investigation focuses on whether the program violates privacy laws, and the findings will be released after completion of the Iraq war supplemental spending bill, possibly as early as this week, a panel aide said.

The ADVISE and TIA data-mining projects rely on personal data to track individual behavior and consumer transactions to develop computer algorithms that create a pattern that some behavioral scientists say can predict terrorist behavior.

Data can include credit-card purchases, telephone or Internet details, medical records, travel and banking information.

Privacy concerns prompted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to introduce legislation in January to require that government agencies disclose data-mining practices in regular reports to Congress.

"A serious discussion on the implications of data-mining programs is long overdue," Sen. Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat and a sponsor of the bill, said yesterday. Sen. John E. Sununu, New Hampshire Republican, is also a bill sponsor. "Many Americans are understandably concerned about the idea of secret government programs analyzing their personal information. Congress needs to know more about the operational aspects and privacy implications of data-mining programs before these programs are allowed to go forward," Mr. Feingold said........."

[Anti-Bubba182]

This could be a good thing if used properly.

[unkus]

Law abiding gun owners could be targeted.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Many bad things could happen if this is abused, but if they target terrorists it will be good.

[proxy_user]

It can't possibly work.

If you are looking for terrorists, why not just have agents hang around radical mosques and Islamic bookstores?

[unkus]

I wonder how Hitlery would use this? Rhetorical question.

[af_vet_rr]

I posted this in the other thread:

For a moment, let's pretend that the government is trying to secure our borders, and that somehow the bad guys still got through (their justification for this). For the people who love the government and anything that increases the size and scope of the government, and who would be cheerleaders for these types of things, stop and ask yourselves these three questions:

1)Do you feel comfortable with a liberal White House having access to these types of tools.

2)Do you feel comfortable with the federal government knowing what you buy, when you buy, where you buy, i.e. things such as subscriptions to hunting magazines, self defense courses, ammunition, books and magazines that would clearly label you as a very independent person (i.e. Conservative), information your travel (easy to guess if you're driving somewhere and buy gas and food every so often), etc. A gun grabber wouldn't have to try and get the records of who belongs to the NRA, they'll easily know by the transactions you make.

3)Being that many of you are veterans, and you've probably gotten the letters from the VA about them losing laptops with potentially your data, not to mention all of the stories we hear (God only knows what we don't hear) of government employees losing laptops with all kinds of data, do you feel comfortable about the government having even more information about your life, with the potential to lose even more information about you?

Now we all know that there are companies that have gathered all kinds of information about us already - they sell this information to marketers, store chains, etc., who use the information to target their advertising to us. They know what we subscribe to. They know how much we spend on gas, what stores we shop at, etc., and chances are the government does have some access to this information (they do have to pay for it though). This would go way beyond that.

Things like this lay out the groundwork for all kinds of government abuse. It basically allows the government to build a profile on everybody (they already have them, but not to this extent). This information can and will be shared with all kinds of groups, from your local city and county government and law enforcement to who knows what.

A city like Chicago would love to be able to have this information - if you subscribe to Handgun magazine, you're gonna set off some flags living in a city like Chicago. The list goes on.

[Mr J]

" credit-card purchases, telephone or Internet details, medical records, travel and banking information. "

Seems like another specious preventitive measure. If illegal Mexicans can survive and thrive completely outside the system, using stolen identities, why can't Muslim terrorists?

[af_vet_rr]

I wonder how Hitlery would use this? Rhetorical question.

It's rhetorical but it's important! I've been working with databases for 10 years now, and while I'm doing anything that deals with information on people, being that I've kept up on things, I'm fully aware of what they can be used for.

To take the grocery store as an example - there are companies that have enormous amounts of data on people's shopping habits - those little "discount" cards or "reward" cards that grocery chains have - they track everything you buy, and they know exactly what they should put on sale in a given area, and they know exactly how to target you and your neighborhood in order to produce a sale. Most are moving to a point where the coupons you get on the back of your receipt are targeted towards you - as soon as you swipe that card, or the system determines who are you (credit card, etc.), it queues up coupons and discounts based on your individual shopping habits.

That's just grocery stores.

Say a Maryland or Illinois or NYC wanted to know who all had guns in a given area - it would be so damn easy for them to figure it out. Criteria such as "pays dues to the NRA or other similar organizations", "subscribes to Guns & Ammmo", "bought ammunition on these dates at these stores", turned in such-and-such hunting tags or bought a hunting license, etc., etc. They would have that data within hours.

The government is not making this for only a small number of people to have access to - it would not be useful otherwise.

Just assume that your city, county, state, etc., will have access to this info if they want it - hell, they'll be feeding into the system.

[frankjr]

Does it, um, I mean a friend of mine was wondering if it can find porn on a hard drive?

[af_vet_rr]

FYI, threads like these where a lot more Conservatives should be concerned - they'll generate about 0.0001% of the posts that threads about washed-up dead celebrities or what some scientologist nutball said about Bush generate. In our country, what some lame-brained celebrity has to say about the government is more important than what the government is doing that will affect us all.

[unkus]

Good points.

[no-to-illegals]

The list goes on.
(God only knows what we don't hear)

Is that the point where a hero arrives?

Still looking for the hero......
still not seeing that hero!
can I get 25 for the congress critter,
55 for the senator, you want a veep?
dear dear me.....that's gonna cost .......
Thank God they missed.....
but they're certain to show up again...
excuse me, it's dem dang black hellicopters again
and hitlery is riding shotgun.......
Calvary Ho!

[af_vet_rr]

What these companies do, the government would do in a much bigger way:

ChoicePoint (Wikipedia) - ChoicePoint.com

Acxion (Wiki) - Acxiom.com

Axciom - Yahoo Business Profile: Acxiom Corporation Company Profile This company's handiwork shows up in our mailboxes. Acxiom is one of the world's leading providers of data and software used for direct marketing and customer relationship management (CRM). It collects and maintains a storehouse of consumer information covering nearly every household in the US and real estate records on more than 70 million properties that it offers to clients needing addresses, telephone numbers, and demographics for their direct mail and telemarketing efforts. Its CRM applications help companies manage customer data and can integrate that information into marketing systems. Established in 1969, Acxiom has operations in the US, Europe, and Australia.

Those are just a couple of the bigger companies - there are many more like them. The government would make them look like amateurs.

[Oztrich Boy]

This could be a good thing if used properly.

Al Gore says the same thing about carbon offsets.

[no-to-illegals]

(God only knows what we don't read or hear) Even Heaven has a government, and although our government isn't perfect, our government is and are normally excellent profilers. My problem with the government is their refusal to profile, or if there has been profiling taking place then my objection would be why hasn't the information been shared with the public or I know "it's classified".
or maybe
(God only knows what we don't read or hear) and quite probably our government is very aware of the current situation ...and our government is behaving as the cowards and traitors they are, because of knowing the present and current situation. And these four possibles are only four of countless possibles. Dang confusion, it's always back to the drawing board or planning room........... mho

[snarks_when_bored]

Information in the hands of a government bureaucrat is like crack in the pipe of Marion Barry...

[voltaires_zit]

> This could be a good thing if used properly.

Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- PJ O'Rourke

You may claim you didn't know what, exactly, was going to go wrong, but you have no basis for believing that things aren't going to end badly.

[B4Ranch]

USE CASH not credit cards. It will make you almost *disappear* from their wandering eyes.

[B4Ranch]

That would be too effective and it would upset the rugrider community.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

... develop computer algorithms that ... some behavioral scientists say can predict terrorist behavior.

Come on! How hard can it be to create an algorithm that matches names of people against this list?