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http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040528...22605-9267r.htm

U.S. agencies collect, examine personal data on Americans
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Numerous federal government agencies are collecting and sifting through massive amounts of personal information, including credit reports, credit-card purchases and other financial data, posing new privacy concerns, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO).

The GAO surveyed 128 federal departments and agencies and found that 52 are using, or planning to implement, 199 data-mining programs, with 131 already operational.

The Education, Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, Justice, and Treasury departments are among those that use the contentious new technology to detect criminal or terrorist activity; manage human resources; gauge scientific research; detect fraud, waste and abuse; and monitor tax compliance.

The audit released yesterday shows 36 data-mining programs collect and analyze personal information that is purchased from the private sector, including credit reports and credit-card transactions. Additionally, 46 federal agencies share personal information that includes student-loan application data, bank-account numbers, credit-card information and taxpayer-identification numbers.

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Bob Barr, chairman of the American Conservative Union Foundation's 21st Century Center for Privacy and Freedom and a former congressman from Georgia, said the use of data mining to spy on American citizens will continue to grow until Congress addresses the issue.

"Many in Washington cheered when it appeared the Congress killed TIA. However, as I said at the time and have repeated since, it is not dead, only renamed and resurfaced elsewhere," Mr. Barr said.

The ACLU said some programs appear to be a "dragnet on the general population," including a Homeland Security program that "correlates events and people to specific information" and a Defense Intelligence Agency data-mining program to "identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities."

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The GAO report did not include classified programs, and some agencies did not respond to its request for information, including the CIA, National Security Agency and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.