Massive FBI Data Mining Revealed, Set to Expand
Recently declassified documents obtained by Wired magazine reveal a massive Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data mining operation. It already possesses over 1.5 billion records from government and private-sector sources. That figure is expected by the FBI to balloon to over 6 billion within a few years. And it is not just terrorists they are after.
According to the documents, the National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) is being used to pursue multiple types of non-terrorism domestic investigations. It is also meant to be able to sort through the data — everything from health and travel records to credit card transactions and car rentals — to identify people who might pose a threat. The “pattern analysis” capabilities search for suspicious behavior to finger people of interest, but the whole concept has been hammered by critics as a sort of unconstitutional “pre-crime” program.
