The cat is out of the bag. According to a very recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report to the Subcommittee on Financial Management, the Budget, and International Security, Committee on Government Affairs, of the United States Senate ("Senate"), the federal government has been using data mining techniques for various purposes, from attempting to improve service to trying to detect terrorist patterns and activities. Indeed, no less than 52 federal departments and agencies are using or are planning to use data mining, 131 data mining efforts currently are operational, and 68 such efforts are intended.

Significantly, of these 199 current and intended data mining efforts, 122 used personal information. Of 54 efforts to mine data from the private sector (including credit reports or credit card transactions), 36 involve personal information. Of 77 efforts to mine data from other federal agencies, 46 target personal information (such as student loan application data, bank account numbers, credit card information, and taxpayer identification numbers).

The Department of Defense reported the highest number of efforts designed to improve service, manage human resources, and to detect terrorist activities. The Department of Education reported the highest number of efforts aimed to detect fraud, waste and abuse. And NASA reported the highest number of efforts geared toward analyzing scientific research and research information. Efforts to detect criminal activities and patterns are spread out somewhat evenly across agencies that reported engaging in related data mining efforts.

So, what exactly is data mining in this context? According to the GAO, data mining is "a technique for extracting knowledge from large volumes of data." More specifically, data mining is described as "the application of database technology and techniques — such as statistical analysis and modeling — to uncover hidden patterns and subtle relationships in data and to infer rules that allow for the prediction of future results."

Data mining is said to enable "government agencies to analyze massive volumes of data quickly and relatively inexpensively." The GAO states that "the use of this type of information retrieval has been driven by the exponential growth in volumes and availability of information collected by the public and private sectors, as well as by advances in computing and data storage capabilities." Thus, "generic data mining tools are increasingly available for — or built into — major commercial databases." And as a consequence, data mining "can be performed on many types of data, including those in structured, textual, spatial, Web or multimedia forms."

While the GAO reports that the federal government is using data mining for improving service, detecting fraud, analyzing scientific information, managing human resources, and detecting criminal and terrorist activities, one certainly can be left with an uneasy feeling when vast amounts of data, including personal information, can be manipulated so easily in an effort to "uncover hidden patterns" and "predict future results." Incorrect conclusions can be drawn from data, data can be used for other than original purposes, and privacy rights can be violated.

Hopefully, the Senate will not accept the GAO report at face value, and will endeavor to ascertain whether federal data mining efforts actually have caused any of these potential problems. Even the GAO agrees that "more work is needed to shed light on the privacy implications of [data mining] efforts." The public is entitled to know whether Big Brother has entered our lives, 20 years after Orwell's designated date of 1984.

Eric Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris (www.duanemorris.com), where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology disputes. His column appears Wednesdays at USATODAY.com. His Web site is www.sinrodlaw.com, and he can be reached at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com. To receive a weekly e-mail link to Mr. Sinrod's columns, please send an e-mail with the word Subscribe in the Subject line to ejsinrod@duanemorris.com.

Reprinted here with permission from USAToday.com.