[Timesink]

And just how are they gonna get THIS data?

They're not. That's the great thing. The only way for this to work is for "the government" to get its hands on data sets that don't exist.

TIA will flop around for a few years and then die when someone in Congress says, "Hey, it's been five years and umpteen million dollars and TIA hasn't caught one person."

[KarlInOhio]

"Hey, it's been five years and umpteen million dollars and TIA hasn't caught one person."

... so we have to spend more money on it.

I would take the government more seriously on this, except for the fact that they had everything they needed to stop the 9/11 attack except for the will to ask for a search warrant. Political correctness stopped that, political correctness prevents TSA from doing anything useful at the airports, and political correctness will stop this from being useful for stopping terrorism. Useful for internal surveillance and tyranny, yes. Preventing terrorism, no.

[MineralMan]

"And just how are they gonna get THIS data?

They're not. That's the great thing. The only way for this to work is for "the government" to get its hands on data sets that don't exist."

Don't they? I wonder. OTC drug sales...well, if you buy your OTC stuff at the supermarket and use your discount card, there will be a record. I suspect that there are more records than we know, to tell the truth.