Some modern movies show what might happen in the future

Posted : 8 Oct, 2011 03:53 PM

Homeland Security moves forward with �pre-crime� detection

Declan McCullagh

CNET News

Saturday, October 8, 2011



An internal U.S. Department of Homeland Security document indicates that a controversial program designed to predict whether a person will commit a crime is already being tested on some members of the public voluntarily, CNET has learned.



If this sounds a bit like the Tom Cruise movie called �Minority Report,� or the CBS drama �Person of Interest,� it is. But where �Minority Report� author Philip K. D_ck enlisted psychics to predict crimes, DHS is betting on algorithms: it�s building a �prototype screening facility� that it hopes will use factors such as ethnicity, gender, breathing, and heart rate to �detect cues indicative of mal-intent.�



The latest developments, which reveal efforts to �collect, process, or retain information on� members of �the public,� came to light through an internal DHS document obtained under open-government laws by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. DHS calls its �pre-crime� system Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST.



�If it were deployed against the public, it would be very problematic,� says Ginger McCall, open government counsel at EPIC, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C.



Full story here.



October 8, 2011





Shalom

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