Information released today about the government and data mining. Searching for terrorists is a valid issue, but of the additional 5 mining data bases, 2 are health care related items. If they are there to prevent fraud, that is one issue, but he comment from Congressman Leahy sums it up pretty well in the fact that the data bases are also ripe for abuse as both Congress and the American public have very little knowledge about these and other data mining programs being used by the government. "The 38-page report was four months late in being sent to Congress for required oversight." I don't quite understand whether it was the fact that the report was late or whether the failure to report the information was the oversight here, anyway a 38 page report has been issued. BD
WASHINGTON - The FBI is gathering and sorting information about Americans to help search for potential terrorists, insurance cheats and crooked pharmacists, according to a government report obtained Tuesday.
The five other databases detailed in the report include:
_An identity theft intelligence program, used since 2003, to examine and analyze consumer complaints to identify major identity theft rings in a given geographic area.
_A health care fraud system that looks at billing records in government and private insurance claims databases to identify fraud or over-billing by health care providers. It also has been running since 2003.
_A database created in 2005 that looks at consumer complaints to the Food and Drug Administration to identify larger trends about fraud by Internet pharmacies.
_A housing fraud program that analyzes public data on real estate transactions to identify fraudulent housing purchases, including so-called property flipping. The database was built in 1999.
_A system that compares National Insurance Crime Bureau information against other data to crack down on fake car accident insurance claims and identify major offenders.
The 38-page report was four months late in being sent to Congress for required oversight. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said it "raises more questions than it answers."
"Unfortunately, the Congress and the American public know very little about these and other data mining programs, making them ripe for abuse," said Leahy, D-Vt.
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