Firm Seeks Obscure Links In Data for Security Risks

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, January 14, 2002 | THOMAS E. WEBER

[TroutStalker]

LAS VEGAS -- They know a thing or two about bad guys here in America's garish fantasyland. Cheats and thieves are part of the scene. So can Vegas teach corporate America how to reduce fraud -- and combat terrorism, too?

[freefly]

"Trigger connections can be as obscure as having shared the same residential address years ago."

In other words, ANYTHING can be used to label someone a "suspect" worthy of investigation.
The "patriot act" then lets them do pretty much anything they want to.
Boy, I sure feel safe now...

[BOBTHENAILER]

Good post. Scary stuff coming down the pike nowadays.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Mr. Jonas says he's working now on building more "degrees of separation" into the technology, so that it can find indirect links through third parties. (Kevin Bacon, take note.) The specter of guilt by association clearly looms over these efforts, but Mr. Jonas argues that false positives are bad business because they cost too much to investigate.

If you build enough "degrees of separation" into your data analysis, you are certain to find that I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Bill Clinton. Since that is a trivial result--a mere presumption of universal guilt--building in more "degrees of seperation" implies building in more scepticism as well, to have any pretense of value.

Otherwise you'll have a system suitable only for finding people who live in monastaries. If that.

[Free the USA]

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