Fergie's Tech Blog

Clarifications Sought on U.S. Government Data Mining

Ben Bain writes on FCW.com:

Clarification is needed for the definition of data mining and the rules governing it, civil libertarians and academics said today.

Several experts at a Homeland Security Department conference on implementing privacy protections in government data mining expressed concerns that the meaning of data mining was misunderstood, or had not been fully explained, thus leading to confusion or potential violations of privacy rights.

In the legislation that established DHS, Congress required the department to “establish and utilize…a secure communications and information technology infrastructure, including data mining and other advanced analytical tools, in order to access, receive and analyze data.” However, according to some experts, there's confusion over what constitutes data mining, causing misperceptions.

posted by Fergie @ 7/24/2008 02:40:00 PM