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ZDNet News, January 30, 2003. A forthcoming government database will compile information from all federal agencies and the private sector on people deemed possible terrorist threats, President Bush said Tuesday evening.

Bush used his State of the Union address to announce the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), a mammoth data-collection project intended to fuse information collected domestically by police and internationally by spy agencies.

Privacy advocates have raised questions about this program and compared it to controversial Total Information Awareness (TIA) project. Last week, citing privacy concerns, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to put restrictions on TIA.

It's not clear how much data-mining TTIC will do, but the White House's description says it will "fuse and analyze all-source information" and ensure that "information from all sources is shared, integrated, and analyzed seamlessly."

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., has introduced a bill to regulate "data-mining technology" in use by the government that could, if enacted, apply to TTIC.

Here is the full story.