I’m for DHS’ visual analytics program, IF…
GCN reports DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate is continuing to use visual analytics, which has been criticized for its past application to real data, as an analytical tool dealing only with “synthetic data.”
I’ve been a persistent critic of DHS’ other data mining programs because of a litany of abuses of privacy rights and constant errors — with no process to clean them up. However, if they’re serious about using this only as a modeling tool, with no actual personal data, my enthusiasm for data visualization as a tool for policy and data analysis wins the day, and I think it could lead to valuable insights!
The project, run by DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate, is aimed at being able to spot terrorist activity by analyzing patterns of data from sources ranging to cell phone calls to bank records.
DHS spokesperson Amy Kudwa emphasizes that, unlike the deep-sixed Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization and Semantic Enhancement, or Advise program, no real data is involved: “It relies on synthetic data … It is purely research on ways to interact with data.”
According to the story:
“Visual analytics is considered a form of data mining, which is defined as use of computer programs to find hidden patterns in large amounts of data and to use those patterns to predict behavior. Data mining is widely used in commerce, but it has been controversial in homeland security because of the fears of privacy loss and civil-rights violations. In visual analytics, the data is mapped in two- and three-dimensional formats and sometimes animated.
“…Although the ongoing research program uses synthetic data, the Science and Technology directorate, in a recent newsletter, described it as having a potential for identifying and stopping terrorists.
“‘Today, researchers at the DHS Science and Technology Directorate are creating ways to see fuzzy data as a three-dimensional picture where threat clues can jump out,’ a recent DHS newsletter stated in an article on the visual analytics program.
“‘Mathematicians, logicians and linguists make the collective universe of data assume a meaningful shape. They assign brightness, color, texture and size to billions of known and apparent facts, and they create rules to integrate these values so threats stand out. For example, a day’s cache of video, cell phone calls, photos, bank records, chat rooms and intercepted e-mails may take shape as a blue-gray cloud,’ the DHS newsletter said.
“The newsletter also suggests the program may be used eventually to predict behavior. ‘A month of static views might be animated as a ‘temporal’ movie, where a swelling ridge reveals a growing threat. Analysts can then state, ‘I think a bomb will explode here,’” the newsletter stated.”
May sound a little etherial, but I’ve seen enough of these visualizations to know that they really can be an invaluable way to understand and interpret reams of data, identify convergences, etc.
IMHO, the burden of proof remains on DHS in light of its manifold abuses of data mining, but if they’re honest about the program’s limits, it could be valuable in its own right while also forwarding the broader goal of data visualization as a tool in policy analysis. Holy Edward Tufte!
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