Briefs

Federal Computer Week (07/05/04) Vol. 18, No. 22, P. 40; Olsen, Florence

General Accounting Office officials have given Congress an extensive report on the federal government's use of data mining. Lawmakers must weigh the potential dangers exposed in the report.

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), who requested the GAO study, is considering whether to propose legislation to curb privacy abuses that can occur in data mining when unclassified computer data is shared and analyzed.

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Georgetown University law professor Jeffrey Rosen says staving off privacy abuses that can occur in federal mining of unregulated data requires a two-part strategy. The first step is the development of improved data-mining technologies, and the second step is the congressional institution of new legal security measures.

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