The FBI wants to compile a massive computer database and use advanced data mining techniques to analyze it for clues to unmask terrorist sleeper cells. But two influential members of Congress, Brad Miller (D-NC) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the chairman and ranking minority member of the House Science and Technology investigations subcommittee, have serious doubts about the proposal. They have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the FBI’s ability to properly manage such a large database and whether predictive data mining even works or just casts false suspicions on innocent people.
Meanwhile, the FBI says that its "Operation Bot Roast" has identified more than a million victims of botnet crimes. The FBI is working with CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University ands others to notify owners of the compromised computers and uncover clues to additional botnet attacks.
The European Union’s top security official has praised Google’s decision to scale back how long it keeps personally identifiable data accumulated from its Web users as a step towards addressing EU privacy concerns. In a bid to mollify the EU, Google said this week it was ready to limit the time it stored user data to a year and a half.