Feingold and Sununu Want to Keep Track of Data Mining

Sen. Russ Feingold and Sen. John Sununu reintroduced a bill yesterday that would require all government agencies to report data minging activities to Congress. The bill would require all government agencies to report to Congress within 180 days and then once a year after. The bill was oringinally introduced last year.

Feingold had this to say about the bill...

This bill is a way for Congress and the public to finally understand what is going on behind the closed doors of the executive branch so that we can start to have a policy discussion about data mining that is long overdue,” Feingold said. “The possibility of unchecked, secret use of data mining technology threatens one of the most important values that we are fighting for in the war against terrorism – freedom.

Sununu added...

Data mining and other technologies can be essential tools in detecting predictive patterns and possible outcomes from anonymous records. However, it is imperative that we understand the impact of such technology on Americans’ personal privacy. In order to do this, Congress must be fully informed of the current data mining technologies, new ones that are being developed, the effectiveness of those technologies, and the privacy protections in place.

It is good to see that Congress is starting to do its job and hold the executive branch accountable once again. The Foreign Relations Committee also began hearings yesterday about Iraq policy and it will be interesting to find out what they uncover.