bram <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> On 16 Nov 1999, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>
> > >ACLU today launched a new web site www.echelonwatch.org, which is designed
> > >to focus public attention on the threats to civil liberties which are
> > >posed by the massive international communications surveillance program
> > >sometimes known by the code name ECHELON. The attached release gives more
> > >details on the site.
>
> I find the phrasing of this site curious - the impression that I got from
> the last cypherpunks meeting is that echelon is mostly used for
> industrial/government espionage - the number of reports it generates (two
> a day if my memory servers) are just too small to say much about
> individuals.
You're talking about end-product which is passed up to the
whitehouse. The value in a system like this historic investigations of
archived material via graph theory (e.g least path) and other
data-mining methods, such as those that are commonly employed to
predict and discover insurance fraud and tax evasion. Software such as
NetMap, Watson and Memex are key non-classified examples of what the
classified models probably look like. Once a subject becomes of
interest, the database can be mined to discover the web of
historic interactions that person has with other groups and individuals
satisfying certain constraints or symmetries. e.g "show me the top 5
two party relationships that exist that are of the same nature as the
relationship between parties A and B". This can be done automatically,
so that people who are starting to demonstrate certain behavior
receive more intense automatic and finally manual analysis.
Cheers,
Julian.
