Data Mining: Agencies Have Taken Key Steps to Protect Privacy in Selected Efforts, but Significant Compliance Issues Remain

摘要

Data mining-a technique for extracting knowledge from large volumes of data-is being used increasingly by the government and by the private sector. Many federal data mining efforts involve the use of personal information, which can originate from government sources as well as private sector organizations. The federal government's increased use of data mining since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has raised public and congressional concerns. As a result, GAO was asked to describe the characteristics of five federal data mining efforts and to determine whether agencies are providing adequate privacy and security protection for the information systems used in the efforts and for individuals potentially affected by these data mining efforts.