Scientists Question Terrorist-Hunting Techniques -- CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two methods the federal government wants to use to find terrorists -- "data mining" and "behavior detection" -- are dubious scientifically and have "enormous potential" for infringing on law-abiding Americans' privacy, a consortium of scientists said.
Data mining involves searching databases for suspicious and revealing relationships and patterns. But while the technique is useful in commercial settings to detect credit card fraud, it is questionable whether data mining can detect and pre-empt terrorist attacks, the National Research Council said.
Behavior detection, used by the Transportation Security Administration and some police departments to isolate possible criminals from crowds, likewise falls short of meeting scientific standards, the group said.
"There is not a consensus within the relevant scientific community" that behavior detection is "ready for use ... given the present state of
Data mining involves searching databases for suspicious and revealing relationships and patterns. But while the technique is useful in commercial settings to detect credit card fraud, it is questionable whether data mining can detect and pre-empt terrorist attacks, the National Research Council said.
Behavior detection, used by the Transportation Security Administration and some police departments to isolate possible criminals from crowds, likewise falls short of meeting scientific standards, the group said.
"There is not a consensus within the relevant scientific community" that behavior detection is "ready for use ... given the present state of the science," the group said.
Read more ....
My Comment: I know that data-mining has been incredibly successful in Iraq. I would love to read the counter-arguments to this report. I will update in the next few days.
Behavior detection, used by the Transportation Security Administration and some police departments to isolate possible criminals from crowds, likewise falls short of meeting scientific standards, the group said.
"There is not a consensus within the relevant scientific community" that behavior detection is "ready for use ... given the present state of the science," the group said.
Read more ....
My Comment: I know that data-mining has been incredibly successful in Iraq. I would love to read the counter-arguments to this report. I will update in the next few days.