Snowden, Google, and Text Networks

• Activity Number: 200
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2014 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Learning and Data Mining
• Author(s): David Banks*+
• Companies: Duke University
• Keywords: NSA ; data mining ; big data ; privacy ; text mining ; network models

Abstract

The recent revelations about NSA surveillance of phone and email data and metadata have revived long-standing concerns by privacy advocates. The purpose of this roundtable discussion is to specify the data mining tools available to federal security agencies and technology companies and to scope out their capabilities, limitations, and likely uses. No doubt, privacy issues will arise, but the intent is mostly amoral, focusing on methodology more than the legal and social implications. In particular, we shall discuss the analysis of networks of textual documents.