Feds test new data mining program (John Yaukey)

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U.S. Lawmakers and privacy advocates are concerned that a powerful new data searching tool being tested by the Department of Homeland Security could pose a threat to Americans' privacy as it sifts through mountains of information for patterns that might reveal terrorists.

By John Yaukey, Gannett News Service

March 7, 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers and privacy advocates are concerned that a powerful new data searching tool being tested by the Department of Homeland Security could pose a threat to Americans' privacy as it sifts through mountains of information for patterns that might reveal terrorists.

Called ADVISE -- for Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement -- the program is capable of linking and cross-matching material from websites and blogs to government records and personal data.

Homeland Security has quietly been developing the ADVISE program since 2003, the same year another powerful data mining program at the Pentagon called Total Information Awareness was scuttled over privacy concerns.

Some leading lawmakers believe Congress needs to scrutinize these programs carefully, fearing data analysis capability is advancing so quickly that government oversight can't keep pace with it.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) just completed an analysis of ADVISE at the request of lawmakers, who could release the report as soon as this week.