RePoRt On ThE In"V"eStIgAtIvE DaTa WaReHoUsE

EFF Issues Report on FBI Investigative Data Warehouse

[Update by Kurt Opsahl AWSOME!!!]

http://www.eff.org/issues/foia/investigative-data-warehouse-report

TIs....C O N N E C T....T H E.....D O T S !!!

In August 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sought government records concerning the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Investigative Data Warehouse (IDW) pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). After the FBI failed to respond to EFF's requests within the timeline provided by the FOIA, EFF filed a lawsuit on October 17, 2006. Records began to arrive in September 2007. On April 14, 2009, the government filed a brief stating that no more documents were going to be provided, despite the Obama Administration's new guidelines on FOIA.

The following report is based upon the records provided by the FBI, along with public information about the IDW and the datasets included in the data warehouse.

I. Overview of the Investigative Data Warehouse

The Investigative Data Warehouse is a massive data warehouse, which the Bureau describes as "the FBI's single largest repository of operational and intelligence information." As described by FBI Section Chief Michael Morehart in 2005, the "IDW is a centralized, web-enabled, closed system repository for intelligence and investigative data." Unidentified FBI agents have described it "one-stop shopping" for FBI agents and an "uber-Google." According to the FBI, "[t]he IDW system provides data storage, database management, search, information presentation, and security services."

Documents show that the FBI began spending funds on the IDW in fiscal year 2002, "and system implementation was completed in FY 2005." "IDW 1.1 was released in July 2004 with enhanced functionality, including batch processing capabilities." The FBI worked with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Convera and Chilliad to develop the project, among other contractors. As of January 2005, the IDW contained "more than 47 sources of counterterrorism data, including information from FBI files, other government agency data, and open source news feeds." A chart in the FBI documents shows IDW growing rapidly, breaking the half-billion mark in 2005. By March 2006, the IDW had 53 data sources and over half a billion (587,186,453) documents. By September 2008, the IDW had grown to nearly one billion (997,368,450) unique documents. The Library of Congress, by way of comparison, has about 138 million (138,313,427) items in its collection.

In addition to storing vast quantities of data, the IDW provides a content management and data mining system that is designed to permit a wide range of FBI personnel (investigative, analytical, administrative, and intelligence) to access and analyze aggregated data from over fifty previously separate datasets included in the warehouse. Moving forward, the FBI intends to increase its use of the IDW for "link analysis" (looking for links between suspects and other people – i.e. the Kevin Bacon game) and to start "pattern analysis" (defining a "predictive pattern of behavior" and searching for that pattern in the IDW's datasets before any criminal offence is committed – i.e. pre-crime).

---- The evil incident to invasion of the privacy of the telephone is far greater than that involved in tampering with the mails. Whenever a telephone line is tapped, the privacy of the persons at both ends of the line is invaded, and all conversations between them upon any subject, and although proper, confidential, and privileged, may be overheard. Moreover, the tapping of one man's telephone line involves the tapping of the telephone of every other person whom he may call, or who may call him. As a means of espionage, writs of assistance and general warrants are but puny instruments of tyranny and oppression when compared with wire tapping.

__Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)

To all you cubical keyboard perps!!!......Stay tuned for the "light" is starting to shine on YOUR DARKNESS!!!

WAKE UP AMERICA....IT$ OUR COUNTRY!!!

Love "Light" and Energy

_Don

References:

[ FBI Misuse of Authority to Obtain Phone Records]

[Related: Justice officials won’t take oath before briefing] Liers are U.S.

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/justice-officials-wont-take-oath-before-briefing/

[FBI Data-Mining Programs Resurrect "Total Information Awareness"]

http://www.inteldaily.com/news/172/ARTICLE/12091/2009-10-05.html

[Massive FBI Data Mining Revealed, Set to Expand]

http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5415-massive-fbi-data-mining-revealed-set-to-expand

http://www.eff.org/issues/foia/investigative-data-warehouse-report

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_Report_(film)

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/eff-issues-report-fb

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/us/19DNA.html

Important Update: FBI Blows It: Supposed Terror Plot Against NY Synagogues Is Bogus

http://www.alternet.org/world/140209/fbi_blows_it%3A_supposed_terror_plot_against_ny_synagogues_is_bogus/

Orchestrated New York Terror Plot Exploited to Increase Funding

http://www.infowars.com/orchestrated-new-york-terror-plot-exploited-to-increase-funding/

http://www.infowars.com/exactly-as-we-predicted-deadly-ny-terror-cell-are-semi-retarded-potheads/

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/fbi-use-of-patriot-act-authority-increased-dramatically-in-2008/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/24/fbi_database_biometrics/

http://epic.org/privacy/wiretap/ as of 30Apr09 ;)

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/pentrap3121_3127.htm

http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=619133

PROMIS Software Developed, Can Integrate Information from Multiple Databases

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/07/23/new_churchcomm/

[Update: EPIC Seeks Government Agreements with Social Networking Companies EPIC submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Government Services Administration seeking agency records concerning agreements the GSA negotiated between federal agencies and social networking services, including Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, and Facebook. In the FOIA request, EPIC is asking for the public release of the contracts and any legal opinions concerning the application of the Privacy Act of 1974 and Freedom of Information Act to the services that collect information on citizens. For more information see EPIC’s pages Social Networking, Facebook, and Cloud Computing. (Apr. 30)

http://epic.org/2009/04/epic-seeks-government-agreemen.html
___

EPIC Urges Greater Accountability for Network Surveillance. Today, EPIC asked Senator Patrick Leahy to investigate the Department of Justice's failure to make public statistics detailing federal use of "pen registers" and "trap and trace" devices, which record "non-content" information about telephone calls, email and web traffic. In a letter to the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, EPIC observed that the Attorney General is required to provide to Congress detailed statistics concerning the use of these techniques. Yet, "the DOJ does not publicly disclose pen register reports as a matter of course." EPIC also raised questions regarding the agency's compliance with reporting requirements for the period 2004-2008. The lack of public accountability for these network monitoring techniques contrasts with the U.S. Courts' routine public reporting of federal wiretaps, EPIC said. The Courts released the most recent wiretap report on April 27, 2009. (Apr. 29)]

http://epic.org/2009/04/epic-urges-greater-accountabil.html

Special thanks goes out to EFF for all their hard work conerning this important issue!!!

[Update: EFF Demands Public Release of FBI Surveillance Rules]

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/06/23