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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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FBI Database Tracks Hotel Reservations, Car Rentals

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(Newser) – Big Brother alert: A data-mining system set up by the FBI ostensibly to catch terrorists is quickly growing into a database that tracks the comings and goings of ordinary citizens. The database has tens of thousands of records from private corporations, including some Wyndham hotel reservations, Avis car rentals, and even Sears credit card transactions, according to declassified documents obtained by Wired. The agency has requested access to more sources, including the change-of-address database and Social Security numbers.

“We have a situation where the government is spending fairly large sums of money to use an unproven technology that has a possibility of false positives that would subject innocent Americans to unnecessary scrutiny and impinge on their freedom,” says a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Before the (FBI) expands its mission, there must be strict oversight from Congress and the public.”

The FBI seal.
The FBI seal.   (Getty Images)
The FBI seal.
The FBI seal.   (Getty Images)
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DavoMax
Sep 23, 09 6:04 PM CDT
"Strict oversight from congress" HA!! Good luck with that shit. By the time the partisans agree on anything, the real terrorists will own the damn hotel and a fleet of rental cars and I'll be paying THEM to keep the light on for me. Reply
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+8
JoeQ
Sep 23, 09 9:17 PM CDT
"False positives". That means when they use computers to search for countless thousands of patterns, the odds are that some innocent schmuck is going to be flagged because his behavior QUITE COINCIDENTALLY is EXACTLY like a terrorist. Then they act on this and ruin his life for a while. The problem with these kinds of technology is that the people using them are not bright enough for the tools they use. People don't usually get into the places like the FBI by being good at math. Reply
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riffran
Sep 23, 09 9:35 PM CDT
reminds me of the movie "Eagle Eye"....But at what point do you draw the line on the watching....I have to disagre with you on the Math thing Joe Q...I have a buddy in the FBI....and those entry test are rather ....comprehensive....and the courses even tougher.....but then there is the "common sense " factor...she told me THAT can be lacking a lot of times Reply
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Unaffiliated
Sep 24, 09 7:38 AM CDT
@JoeQ & @riffran, the agents don't do the math. Computers do. Hopefully the agents exercise that common sense when the computer algorithms identify a potential terrorist.
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schmidtkoff
Sep 24, 09 5:56 AM CDT
i'm sure they have a full-timer monitoring newser comments and other like sites. Reply
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