DHS to deliver data-mining report to lawmakers today

Key members of Congress today will receive a long-awaited Homeland Security Department data-mining report, the agency's chief privacy officer, Hugo Teufel, told CongressDaily.

Comment on this article in The Forum.Specifics of the report remain under wraps until members of the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee are briefed this afternoon. Teufel praised the work his staff did with Homeland Security's science and technology directorate. The offices held a joint workshop on the topic this summer and delivered an interim report in February, which identified the data-mining activities deployed or under development within the department. Similar reports were released in July 2006 and 2007.

The latest filing comes on the heels of a recent National Research Council paper that recommended lawmakers consider imposing restrictions on how personal data can be protected in conjunction with counterterrorism programs that collect telephone, medical, and other records. The panel of university academics, privacy specialists and technology experts noted that some types of data-mining are not likely to produce valuable results in Homeland Security operations.