The National Security Agency is under the nation’s scrutinizing gaze following its contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks this May about its massive telephone and Internet data collection programs. The NSA data collection efforts have sparked serious concern and controversy among Americans and others around the world, but the U.S. agency is far from alone in its efforts to collect and analyze the data trail all of us leave in our wake these days.
The NSA data collection creeps people out and makes them uncomfortable because it’s being done by the federal government and effectively without our consent. But whether most of us know it or not, we have consented to allowing companies and other organizations to gather data we create in our day-to-day interactions with technology in much the same way.
The takeaway for businesses is that when possible, let people know what you’re doing and why – and don’t be creepy.
As for the NSA, they may not be getting much less creepy any time soon, but they are moving forward with their powerful data collection and analysis efforts with the announcement of a new data analytics laboratory partnership at North Carolina State University, which was announced this week.
With that move, the NSA is joining the ranks of companies and organizations putting forth funding to train a new class of workers – the data scientist. The job of the next five years is going to be “data analyst” and the lab at NC State itself is going to create more jobs in that respect.
This week’s Data Analytics News Roundup brings you articles about the NSA and NC State partnership as well as the latest reporting on the NSA data collection controversy.
- NSA Established $60 Million Data Analytics Lab at NC State at the News & Observer: “As the field of ‘Big Data’ continues to grow in importance, N.C. State University has landed a big coup – a major lab for the study of data analysis, funded by the National Security Agency….’It is a big deal,’ said NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson. ‘It’s a natural fit for us because as an institution we’ve been about data analysis and Big Data for a long time. I think the National Security Agency realized that when they selected us as a university partner.’”
- NC State-NSA Partnership May Help Analyze Utah Data at The Salt Lake Tribune: “NSA Director of Research Michael Wertheimer said N.C. State was chosen for the project because of its location in the Research Triangle and ‘its vibrant academic and industry interest in large data analytics.’ N.C. State had the nation’s first advanced degree program in data analytics and remains an academic leader in the field.‘By immersing intelligence analysts with NC State’s diverse group of scientists, we hope to discover new and powerful ways to meet our foreign signals intelligence and information assurance missions — giving us an edge to better protect the nation,’ Wertheimer said.”
- New Details Show Broader NSA Surveillance Reach at The Wall Street Journal: “‘It’s true we have significant capabilities,’ Mr. Obama said in his NSA remarks last week. ‘What’s also true is we show a restraint that many governments around the world don’t even think to do.’ Mr. Obama and top intelligence officials say NSA’s programs are overseen by all three branches of government, citing procedures approved by the secret surveillance court that require the NSA to eliminate ‘incidentally acquired’ data on Americans.”
- NSA Broke Privacy Rules Thousands of Times Per Year, Audit Finds at The Washington Post: “The NSA uses the term ‘incidental’ when it sweeps up the records of an American while targeting a foreigner or a U.S. person who is believed to be involved in terrorism. Official guidelines for NSA personnel say that kind of incident, pervasive under current practices, ‘does not constitute a . . . violation’ and “does not have to be reported” to the NSA inspector general for inclusion in quarterly reports to Congress. Once added to its databases, absent other restrictions, the communications of Americans may be searched freely.”
- Data-Driven Analysis Debunks Claims that NSA is Out of Control at ZDNet: “If we picture the NSA’s accuracy by comparing it to the commonly accepted IT goal of five-nines of high availability (or about five and a half minutes per year), the NSA’s error rate (described in terms of time) would be 0.2649 milliseconds per year. That’s not the Holy Grail of five nines of accuracy. That’s more like twelve nines.These numbers don’t look to me like a heinous disregard for privacy on the part of the NSA’s coders and systems engineers. Instead, it looks to me more like a triumph of IT and database engineering.”
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