U.S. Government launches massive new data-mining project

Published 9 February 2006

If you did not like the NSA domestic spying in the United States, wait until you read about this massive data-mining (or, as the government calls it, “dataveillance”) project with the innocent code name ADVISE

The U.S. government is developing a massive computer system which will be able to collect huge amounts of data, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mails to government records and intelligence reports, and be able to search for patterns of terrorist or suspicious activity. Some of the parts of the system are already in operation, while parts of which are still under development. It 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. It is only to be expected that this program has also raised privacy concerns by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life.

The core of the latest government effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents refer to it. ADVISE is a research and development program within 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 tight-lipped 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.”

-read more in Mark Clayton’s Christian Sceince Monitor report