Fwd: NSA to mine massive personal data from web

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NSA to mine massive personal data from web

 

 

 

" New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National

Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping

and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass

harvesting of the information that people post about

themselves on social networks. And it could harness

advances in internet technology - specifically the

forthcoming 'semantic web' championed by the web

standards organisation W3C - to combine data from

social networking websites with details such as

banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA

to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of

individuals.

 

" Americans are still reeling from last month's

revelations that the NSA has been logging phone calls

since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The

Congressional Research Service, which advises the US

legislature, says phone companies that surrendered

call records may have acted illegally. However, the

White House insists that the terrorist threat makes

existing wire-tapping legislation out of date and is

urging Congress not to investigate the NSA's action.

 

" Meanwhile, the NSA is pursuing its plans to tap the

web, since phone logs have limited scope. They can

only be used to build a very basic picture of

someone's contact network, a process sometimes called

" connecting the dots " . Clusters of people in highly

connected groups become apparent, as do people with

few connections who appear to be the intermediaries

between such groups. The idea is to see by how many

links or 'degrees' separate people from, say, a member

of a blacklisted organisation. "

 

Full story at:

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=mg19025556.200 & feedId=online-news_\

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