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The FBI data mining "scandal"
Posted by Mark 9 September 2007
We've seen it all countless times in movies and tv detective series, some chief announces, "I want to know everything about this guy, where he goes and who he sees." And everyone rushes out to get as much data as they can about their suspect. It is so familiar to us, it must be obvious that they need to build a picture of the target of their investigation, and yet. The FBI have apparently been doing exactly that with terrorist suspects but have now stopped doing so on legal grounds.
So often, it seems, we run ourselves into ever decreasing circles and tie ourselves up in knots of red tape and political correctness. I wouldn't like to be one of those being held in Guantanamo Bay, that's for sure, nor would I like to be subjected to torture to find out what I know. But compared with being the victim of a terrorist attack, I would like that even less, so on balance I guess I would be in favour of the FBI asking for phone records that tell them who a suspect has been calling.
It's called "data mining" and it involves trawling through millions of seemingly unrelated bits of information to find links and patterns. Those patterns could help build a picture of a terrorist cell that would otherwise escape detection. Isn't that a good thing? Apparently not, it seems some people's civil rights could be compromised by a government agent seeing who they phoned and when.
Get real.
The goal we should all be working towards is preventing the next outrage, the next bombing that results in the mass loss of innocent lives.
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