The Department of Homeland Security is testing a US$42.5 million datamining program that would sift through the travel information of millions of American citizens—including airline flight and hotel reservations—in hopes of detecting terrorists. A similar program developed by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and run by the Pentagon, called Total Information Awareness, was ordered shut down by Congress in 2003 over civil liberties concerns. Pieces of that program were reportedly received additional funding under the Pentagon’s classified budget.
A source familiar with a congressional investigation into the program told Washington Post reporters Ellen Nakashima and Alec Klein that researchers testing the system, called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE), have already violated privacy laws because they have failed to use fake data. A DHS official who helped develop the program told the two reporters that the program relied on “synthetic” data: real data that had been anonomized. According to Nakashima and Klein, “the issue lies at the heart of the debate over whether pattern-based data mining—or searching for bad guys without a known suspect—can succeed without invading people’s privacy and violating their civil liberties.”
A bill co-sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) would require the Bush administration to disclose to Congress the extent of its datamining programs.
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