WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., promised legislation to curb government use of data mining as he took over as chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Leahy acknowledged at a hearing Wednesday that data mining can be a useful tool in law enforcement and anti-terrorist investigations. But he said that, uncontrolled, it can lead to dangerous invasions of privacy.
"There are at least 199 different government data mining programs," Leahy said. "Think about that just for a moment -- 199 different programs. They're operating or planned throughout the federal government."
Leahy said data mining can also lead to too many false positives. He cited a 1-year-old child whose name was on a terrorist watch list, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who has been stopped 10 times at airports even though he has been flying regularly between Boston and Washington for 40 years.
