March 21, 2006: Data mining won't go away, and that's because it works. Back in November 2002, the media and politicians found out about a government data mining program called Total Information Awareness (TIA). There was much indignation about this assault on American privacy rights, and TIA was shut down by September, 2003. But data mining didn't go away, because it was around before TIA. Actually, data mining has been around for about a century, with the first widespread use undertaken by direct marketing companies like Sears and Montgomery-Ward. Data mining became a more powerful tool with the introduction, and proliferation, of computers after World War II. The first major data mining success against terrorists was in the 1970s, when West German intelligence and police organizations used data mining to run down local terrorist groups.
Despite the ruckus caused by TIA, the Department of Defense has dozens of projects that use data mining. This sort of thing was going on before TIA, and the lesson learned is; keep your mouth shut about things that the media and politicians love to jump on and score points with. Naturally, all the counter-terrorism uses of data mining are classified. But we do know from past uses that, even terrorists who "go dark" (no credit cards, no Easy Pass, and so on), leave traces that data mining can pick up. An individual terrorist, operating alone, could be nearly invisible. But any really destructive attack would require teamwork. Teams leave tracks, and make waves that data mining can detect. There are ways to defeat, or at least diminish the capability of data mining. But that sort of information is kept secret. There are some unclassified sources discussing this subject, but the people who know the most about evading a data mining search, are the top data mining crews. They aren't talking, because the only people who would benefit would be criminals, and terrorists.
