Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorism

• Activity Number: 148
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Monday, August 3, 2009 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Defense and National Security
• Author(s): Daniel Weitzner*+ and Michael L. Cohen*+ and Betty Chemers*+ and Herb Lin*+
• Companies: Committee on National Statistics and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Sciences
• Keywords: counterterrorism ; data mining ; behavioral surveillance ; false positives

Abstract

Domestic terrorist attacks can cause severe economic and social disruption; therefore, there is strong incentive to detect intended attacks before they occur so that there is a chance of negating or effectively controlling their impact. The panelists for this session will discuss the roles of data mining and behavioral surveillance technologies in counterterrorism programs, roles which were examined in the recently published report from the National Research Council titled "Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Assessment." The framework is directed toward the goal of making decisions that appropriately balance privacy with security when deploying and evaluating those and other information-based programs for their effectiveness and risks to personal privacy.