US plans massive data sweep

[BR_Parkway]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p01s02-uspo.html

The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.

The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy.

<snip>

The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), part of its three-year-old "Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment" portfolio. The TVTA received nearly $50 million in federal funding this year.

DHS officials are circumspect when talking about ADVISE. "I've heard of it," says Peter Sand, director of privacy technology. "I don't know the actual status right now. But if it's a system that's been discussed, then it's something we're involved in at some level."

[JCMach1]

1. TIA all over again

they NEVER stopped the development.

[krkaufman]

57. Correct. They learned from their early mistakes...

... and changed the name, and kept it quiet.

[punpirate]

2. "credited with helping to foil some plots..."

... and there's not a single bit of hard evidence to support that statement. Not from any source. Anywhere. In fact, leakers have said exactly the opposite--that the systems in place surveilling citizens inside the US have caused noticeable difficulties for FBI chasing down leads.

The ADVISE system is just another incarnation of TIA, and is intended to enrich the companies writing software for it. Another tremendous boondoggle for the rich and yet another means of snooping on the rest of us, without any oversight from Congress. The director of privacy technology says he's "heard of it." What does that say about the status of privacy oversight? It says that the Bushies don't give a flying fuck about it. Period.

[JCMach1]

4. They never stopped developing TIA... they have been

lying to everyone about this too!!!

[icymist]

3. I'll say that I'm scared.

This is shit. I'll continue doing what I've been doing and being what I've been, thank you!

[OKthatsIT]

34. Its SOoooo...IN OUR FACES. It's totally illegal and NON-FISA.

Bush is in BIG TROUBLE.

[Auntie Bush]

44. "Bush is in BIG TROUBLE." SORRY TO DISAGREE! No he isn't!

He's protecting you and I an America! Didn't you get the message?
America did! Polls now say more than half of Americans thank him for being there protector and keeping those terrorist over there and not here. So now you and I can sleep better knowing everything we say or do is recorded. We didn't do anything wrong...so what the hell!!!
Who cares if our constitution is being trampled on...they wiped there feet before they walded all over it. Nothing to worry out...so lets go back to bed and just sleepm it off. Everything will be OK when we WAKE UP.

[rodeodance]

5. they say there is privacy protection "built in" .

.....Echoes of a past controversial plan

ADVISE "looks very much like TIA," Mr. Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes in an e-mail. "There's the same emphasis on broad collection and pattern analysis."

But Mr. Sand, the DHS official, emphasizes that privacy protection would be built-in. "Before a system leaves the department there's been a privacy review.... That's our focus."

Some computer scientists support the concepts behind ADVISE.

"This sort of technology does protect against a real threat," says Jeffrey Ullman, professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford University. "If a computer suspects me of being a terrorist, but just says maybe an analyst should look at it ... well, that's no big deal. This is the type of thing we need to be willing to do, to give up a certain amount of privacy."

[rodeodance]

7. but 87% of people can still be identified (via DOB, gender and zip code)!

...While privacy laws do place some restriction on government use of private data - such as medical records - they don't prevent intelligence agencies from buying information from commercial data collectors. Congress has done little so far to regulate the practice or even require basic notification from agencies, privacy experts say.

Indeed, even data that look anonymous aren't necessarily so. For example: With name and Social Security number stripped from their files, 87 percent of Americans can be identified simply by knowing their date of birth, gender, and five-digit Zip code, according to research by Latanya Sweeney, a data-privacy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.

In a separate 2004 report to Congress, the GAO cited eight issues that need to be addressed to provide adequate privacy barriers amid federal data-mining. Top among them was establishing oversight boards for such programs.

[icymist]

8. "privacy protection "?! And WTF is that?

These people are tearing down the Bill Of Rights, the cornerstones to our US Constitution! I think we should be all over them and asking questions.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. Privacy protection is not having to open up your energy task

force meeting minutes/records. That's privacy. We should all just start using carrier pidgeons... let them tap that.

[wordpix2]

43. hahahaha, good one. Privacy is only for BushCo and corporate cronies

[Zhade]

48. FUCK YOU, Ullman.

"This is the type of thing we need to be willing to do, to give up a certain amount of privacy."

Fuck off with that Good German shit!

[JCMach1]

6. The bastards shifted TIA from the DOD to DHS

And basically hid it in the Department of Homeland Security Budget... And ACTUALLY HAVE PART OF IT UP AND RUNNING ...

WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT!!!


"Even congressmen with direct oversight of DHS, who favor data mining, say they don't know enough about the program.

"I am not fully briefed on ADVISE," wrote Rep. Curt Weldon (R) of Pennsylvania, vice chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, in an e-mail. "I'll get briefed this week...."

[BR_Parkway]

10. And the wiretap hearings will be used to make it all legal, the same

way Shrub is slipping Social Security reform into the budget to get his way.

Looking at what was left out of the hearings might be more important than what they talked about:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=367276&mesg_id=367276

[Mnemosyne]

18. As Specter said yesterday on the floor, "if

it is illegal than we need to change the law."

Argh!!!

[Wordie]

32. And he didn't swear Gonzales in when he testified. I'm not convinced that

Specter is our friend in this, as some DUers seem to think, despite all his public voicing of concerns about the spying.

[Zhade]

50. You don't think Arlen "Magic Bullet" Specter is our friend?

You think correctly.

[Wordie]

56. The things he says SOUND so good, but then he goes and does stuff that

is in complete contradition to what he's said. :sigh:

[EVDebs]

35. They've put us all on ICE

formerly through FEMA and now through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement intelligence branch of DHS, the ICE.

""With the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the functions, expertise, resources and jurisdictions of several once-fragmented border and security agencies were merged and reconstituted into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS’s largest investigative bureau. The agencies that were either moved entirely or merged in part, based upon law enforcement functions, included the investigative and intelligence resources of the United States Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Protective Service and, as of November 2003, the Federal Air Marshals Service.

ICE is the investigative arm of the Border and Transportation Security Directorate (BTS), the operational directorate within the DHS tasked with securing the nation’s borders and safeguarding its transportation infrastructure. The largest component within the DHS, BTS employs more than 100,000 men and women. ICE brings together more than 20,000 employees who focus on the enforcement of immigration and customs laws within the United States, the protection of specified Federal buildings, and air and marine enforcement. By unifying previously fragmented investigative functions, ICE will deliver effective and comprehensive enforcement. ICE is led by an Assistant Secretary who reports directly to the Under Secretary for BTS.""

http://www.ice.gov/graphics/about/organization/

Next step is the 'suspension of the Constitution' a la REX 84 and we're all in concentration camps for dissenting during wartime.

[RC]

11. Wanna stop terrorism?

1. Stop meddling in the affairs of governments of other countries.

2. Stop most of our military spending of 10's of billions of $$$ a year on new war toys. It is obscene what the U.S. spends over and above what the rest of the world combined spends on "Defense".

3. Control world population with education/birth control, not war, genocide and starvation.

4. Help people in need of help. Clean water, adequate food, shelter.

5. Cooperate in a democratic way with the rest of the countries in the world. The U.S. should not be the self appointed security guard of the world. How would you feel if China decided they needed military bases here in the united States to protect its interests here.

[ClintonTyree]

12. Why go through all of that........

when we can just bomb and kill them? It's soooooo much easier than diplomacy. :sarcasm: Unfortunately THEY don't see it as sarcasm, they call it "foreign policy".

[GoddessOfGuinness]

26. But if China sets up military bases here,

just think of all the new jobs that will create!

[The Wielding Truth]

36. Reminds me of J Carter's X-mas card. "The world would be a better

place if we respect the beauty of it's nature and it's people,"

[teryang]

13. Making lists - key to totalitarianism

They won't stop.

[EVDebs]

33. RFIDs and 'background checks' and political critics retaliation for

asking questions during 'wartime', despite the war being undeclared.

Total Surveillance
http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2005/12/albrecht.h ...

Couple this insidious technology with purposely erroneous background checks

Who is checking the background checkers?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p13s02-wmgn.html

They've offshored, outsourced, and privatized TIA. Now all they have to do is fire you for being 'of the wrong political party' and put false information in your background data...and voila ! You've just created the most insidious terror project in the US ever.

[Daphne08]

14. Welcome to the USSA...

United Stasi States of America

This is beyond disturbing and very, very un-American!

[tecelote]

15. It's all about profits.

We have a huge prison system and it needs to be maintained and able to expand as more neo-cons continue to invest in them.

The Land of the Free holds more prisoners than any other country - in total number and per capita.

The fight against terrorism is a great neo-con investment and one of the best profit producing programs ever. It keeps the money flowing to the morally corrupt and excludes anyone with a conscience. What could be better for a neo-con?

[leveymg]

16. Literally. NSA has been privatized. NSA = phone company = GOP.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/25/132559/979

[Warren Stupidity]

17. Welcome to 21st century totalitarianism. eom.

[bleedingheart]

19. This is exactly what will result in innocent US citizens being jaiiled

[info being]

28. Or not speaking out to begin with

[The Wielding Truth]

37. It's not even far fetched it's their policy to go after

anyone who disagrees.

That is one of the reasons this administration is so dangerous.

There is no way we can trust them after their deceptive record of

dismissing the bill of rights, and considering the Constitution "just a

piece of paper."

I wonder if the republican reptiles realize how easy this

data base will make retrieval of their guns by this administration. What

fools to let that go for fake Homeland Security while it's money is being

siphoned off to Halliburton for detention camps.

I wish every Bush action didn't point to either gross mismanagement or

intentional dismantling of our Democracy.

[Teaser]

20. Respond with Informational Chaff, people!

Jam the motherfucker. Bogus websites with suspected keywords, scrambled communications with keyword subjects...

If they're gonna do this to us, it's up to us to fucking crash the system.

[JCMach1]

21. Encode bomb-making instructions in your avatar

using steganography...

Encrypt spam and email it to friends...!

WE are doomed if this continues...

[sarcasmo]

46. In other words we type Bomb and other key words not a bad idea.

[GeorgeGist]

22. Found this on Google...

It's mostly geek to me but makes me wonder if I should logoff.

http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/publications/gss2005/gss2005_5484.pdf

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

23. Nothing to be worried about

The government has a track record of completely fucking up anything computer-related- overpriced but non-functional software, crappy hardware, and a complete lack of understanding of what they want and how to get it.

It'll be YEARS before they work the bugs out of it, if ever.

[superconnected]

49. Absolutely correct. They've never succeeded at anything

why would they succeed now.

Remember people, the nazis were smart and had it together.

[Warren Stupidity]

58. You should read up on the NSA's computer skills.

They have been at the bleeding edge of cryptography/supercomputers/database technology for decades. Smart people, tons of money, not a lot of bureaucracy. Something very similar to the system described here has pretty much been deployed by the NSA for over ten years. Of course until recently it was limited to overseas monitoring operations.

[lostnfound]

24. How handy this will be, for the next liberal president..

to be able to round up the Freepers etc. for psychiatric counseling.

[stop the bleeding]

27. they will round all the liberals up first I am afraid

[lostnfound]

29. too funny.

Guess you've got a point, though I need to be optimistic in some manner.

Love your picture.

[unkachuck]

54. nah, liberals are no threat....

....we're not even a threat to our own partys leadership....

....just assume they're listening to everybody, all the time, everywhere and I think we'll be close to the truth....

[UpInArms]

25. do you think Rove will add to the "enemies list" with this tool?

:kick:

[EVDebs]

30. "Plans" ? They've already DONE IT !

CAPPS II (TIA) was offshored to the Bahamas with Global Information Group Ltd. It's already been offshored, privatized and 'sanitized for your protection' !

Bahamas Firm Screens Personal Data To Assess Risk
Operation Avoids U.S. Privacy Rules

By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 16, 2004; Page A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36853-2004Oct15.html

We're all a day late and a dollar short on reporting the 'suspension of the Constitution', folks.

Total Surveillance
http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2005/12/albrecht.html ...

Couple this insidious technology with purposely erroneous background checks

Who is checking the background checkers?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p13s02-wmgn.html

They've offshored, outsourced, and privatized TIA. Now all they have to do is fire you for being 'of the wrong political party' and put false information in your background data...and voila ! You've just created the most insidious terror project in the US ever.

"""Unlike the controversial Total Information Awareness research project, the central database of the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening Program II, or CAPPS II, will contain permanent financial records," Singel wrote, "intelligence reports and law enforcement records only on those suspected of posing a national security risk, according to the Jan. 15 Privacy Act notice (http://cryptome.org/tsa011503.htm).

"While data about nonthreatening passengers will be purged when a trip is completed, all travelers will be checked before departure against other public databases as well as private data sources like Acxiom and ChoicePoint, which keep a database of 18 billion records," Singel wrote.""

http://www.disinfopedia.org/index.php?title=Computer_Assisted_Passenger_PreScreening_System_II

However, if the 'data on nonthreatening passengers isn't purged'...then you have the domestic critics terrorization plan that only a mind like Karl Rove could love ! Ted Kennedy and Green Pary members are already the latest victims. It's here folks and there's no way to prove the R's haven't already copied that data onto a non-government computer offshore either.

Are you afraid yet ? Rex 84 is next.

[Javaman]

31. Ahh, our own version of "deep thought"...n/t

[Up2Late]

38. US plans massive data sweep (CS Monitor)

(The "...little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE)...they just love to come up with these stupid acronyms)
from the February 09, 2006 edition

US plans massive data sweep

Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. Will it go too far?

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.

The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy.

"We don't realize that, as we live our lives and make little choices, like buying groceries, buying on Amazon, Googling, we're leaving traces everywhere," says Lee Tien, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We have an attitude that no one will connect all those dots. But these programs are about connecting those dots - analyzing and aggregating them - in a way that we haven't thought about. It's one of the underlying fundamental issues we have yet to come to grips with."

The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), part of its three-year-old "Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment" portfolio. The TVTA received nearly $50 million in federal funding this year.

(more at link below)

<http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p01s02-uspo.html>

[SpiralHawk]

39. "All your data are belong to us." - BushCo

You'll never get my soul, you Skull & Boner reprobates, you...

[Rex]

40. To use against American citizens that complain.

We all know dam well what this system will be used for - suppression of the US Constitution! I've never seen a group of political scumbags with so much HATRED for our Constitution. They really do hate America.

[zanne]

41. Folks, it's the 60's without the outrage.

Richard Nixon was impeached and forced to retire because he spied on Democratic Headquarters, then lied about it. I was reading a poll today that said 52% of Americans approve of domestic spying. WTF?

[Up2Late]

42. Maybe this GOOD news? You know every thing these Bozo's do...

...they screw up, why would this be any different?:shrug:

For a little RW perspective, here's the version that most of the RW websites will most likely pick-up and run, from UPI NewsTrack. UPINT always completely distorts news like this, I think it's where 90% of the bogus news originates:

U.S. 'data mining' for terror information

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A huge U.S. government "data mining" project is being developed as part of the battle to stop terror attacks before they happen.

The system known as Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic enhancement -- Advice -- is being established by the Department of Homeland Security, the Christian Science Monitor reported Thursday. Programmers hope to fashion a system that is able to cull through computer data and determine a pattern that could be sent to human analysts, the newspaper said.

Part of the overall program is operational and has had a hand in stopping terror attacks, National Visualization Analytics Center Director Jim Thomas told the Monitor. He couldn't, however, give details for security reasons.

The sheer breadth of the program concerns privacy activists who say not enough is known of how the technology works and how much information the government intends to collect.

[sarcasmo]

45. Kick and Nom for the end of the Internet as we know it.

[superconnected]

47. I think the only thing to do now is....

count the minutes until the ACLU Files. :)

[Demeter]

51. Garbage In, Garbage Out

Honestly, the basic ignorance of science and technology in this misAdministration is going to be the end of them. the quality of the input will determine the quality of the output.

Unless they want to collect the equivalent of gum wrappers and cigarette butts off the streets, there is no point to this.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

52. 1000 words:

[BiggJawn]

53. Is this just Poindexter's "DARPANET getting cranked up again?

What was that thing called? "Predator"? "DARPANET"? all part ot "Total Information Awareness"
What a hokey name. Sounds like "Total Customer Satisfaction"...

Hope they bring back Calico Johnnie to look at my HD...It'll fry his eyeballs!

[hunter]

55. Ask yourself, "What are they afraid of?"

Then maybe you can figure out what they are looking for...

Their expressions of these fears are irrational. It's a lot like dealing with a meth addict, as their crimes eat away at them, and the paranoia sets in.

From the Tell-tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe:

The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct: --It continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definiteness --until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears. No doubt I now grew very pale; --but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased --and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound --much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath --and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly --more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men --but the noise steadily increased. Oh God! what could I do? I foamed --I raved --I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder --louder --louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! --no, no! They heard! --they suspected! --they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror!-this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now --again! --hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!"