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Date:
Feb 2012.
The 2011 Data Mining Report, was provided to Congress and describes Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programs, both operational and in development, that involve data mining as defined by the Federal Agency Data Mining Reporting Act of 2007. This is the sixth comprehensive DHS Data Mining Report.
The Federal Agency Data Mining Reporting Act of 2007, 42 U.S.C. ยง 2000ee-3 Act defines "data mining" as:
a program involving pattern-based queries, searches, or other analyses of 1 or more electronic databases, where -
(A) a department or agency of the Federal Government, or a non-Federal entity acting on behalf of the Federal Government, is conducting the queries, searches, or other analyses to discover or locate a predictive pattern or anomaly indicative of terrorist or criminal activity on the part of any individual or individuals;
(B) the queries, searches, or other analyses are not subject-based and do not use personal identifiers of a specific individual, or inputs associated with a specific individual or group of individuals, to retrieve information from the database or databases; and
(C) the purpose of the queries, searches, or other analyses is not solely-
(i) the detection of fraud, waste, or abuse in a Government agency or program;
or
(ii) the security of a Government computer system.
From the report Executive Summary
In the 2010 DHS Data Mining Report,2 the DHS Privacy Office discussed three DHS programs
that engage in activities that meet the Data Mining Reporting Act's definition of data mining:
1) the Automated Targeting System (ATS) Inbound (now called ATS-N),
Outbound (now called ATS-AT), and
Passenger (ATS-P) modules administered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP);
2) the Data Analysis and Research for Trade Transparency System (DARTTS) administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and
3) the Freight Assessment System (FAS) administered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This year's report, covering the period December 2010 through November 2011, presents the complete descriptions of ATS-N, ATS-AT, and ATS-P, and DARTTS provided in the 2010 DHS Data Mining Report, with updates on modifications, additions, or other developments that have occurred in the current reporting year. This year's report also includes a new section on the Land module of ATS (ATS-Land), which now uses vehicle licensing information and ATS risk-based rules to assess the risk posed by vehicles and their occupants at U.S. land borders, and a brief summary of CBP's Analytical Framework for Intelligence (AFI), a strategic intelligence program currently in development.
The DHS Privacy Office has also identified three new uses of ATS by DHS Components in conjunction with CBP that are discussed below: the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) pilot (a joint effort of CBP and TSA); the DHS Overstay Initiative Pilot (involving ICE, the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (US-VISIT), and CBP); and TSA's Secure Flight Program's use of ATS-P. Additional information on Secure Flight is being provided to Congress in a separate annex to this report that contains Sensitive Security Information.
As discussed in the 2010 Data Mining Report, FAS was developing a data mining capability to reduce reliance on random inspections for identifying cargo that could pose a heightened risk to passenger aircraft.3 FAS did not deploy this capability, however, and no longer intends to do so. Therefore, FAS is not included in this year's report.
Here is Department of Homeland Security, 2011 Data Mining Report to Congress (37 pages)