[IP] New GAO Report on Government Data Mining
Begin forwarded message:
From: Barry Steinhardt <Bsteinhardt@xxxxxxxx>
Date: May 27, 2004 1:10:03 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: New GAO Report on Government Data Mining
Dave,
A new report on "data mining" , which is being released today by the
General Accounting Office, reveals that practice is widespread in the
the Federal government and that there are, at least, four programs that
may be accessing and analyzing private-sector databases in ways that
are reminiscent of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness Program.
The report was prepared at the request of Senator Daniel Akaka of
Hawaii.
The GAO's investigation uncovered 199 government uses of the
statistical analysis techniques known as data mining, 54 of which use
private-sector data. Such information could include any data held in
corporate or other private hands, including credit-card records and
Internet logs.
In an appendix to its report, the investigators listed those programs,
providing a brief description of each and indicating its purpose and
whether it contained personal information, or made use of
private-sector data and data from other government agencies.
The 4 programs of special concern are:
* Verity K2 Enterprise - Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Mines
data "to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to
foreign terrorism activities." (Page 30 of GAO report)
* Analyst Notebook I2 - Department of Homeland Security.
"Correlates events and people to specific information." (p. 44)
* PATHFINDER - DIA. "Can compare and search multiple large
databases quickly" and "analyze government and private sector
databases." (p. 30)
* Case Management Data Mart - DHS. "Assists in managing law
enforcement cases" Using private-sector data. (p. 44)
According to the GAO descriptions, all four programs draw on
private-sector databases, contain personally identifiable information,
and appear to constitute dragnets on the general population.
Of course, many of the other programs listed by the GAO raise questions
about how they are using information, including private-sector
information - and the GAO's list did not include programs run by the
Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, which did
not respond to its requests for information.
The ACLU, together with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and
the Center for Democracy and Technology, today sent a joint letter to
Senator Akaka praising his efforts and the report.
The joint letter to Sen. Akaka is online at
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=15858&c=130
The GAO should be on their web site shortly at http://www.gao.gov/.
I hope you will find this of interest for IP.
Barry Steinhardt
Director Technology and Liberty
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
125 Broad Street
NYC 10004
www.aclu.org
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