Had dinner with a friend last night who works in federal law enforcement...just passing along a couple tidbits (as I understood them) that might be of interest.

All of our international travel is stored in a database. Everytime we leave the country (via traceable means, ie. plane, train, ship), as well as upon each return, this information is being stored in a database to monitor our travels. They know every time we leave and re-enter the country and generally speaking where we were. Through cross matching credit card (and other traceable transactions), they know where we stayed, where we ate, where we shopped.

When we leave or re-enter the country by car, at most larger border crossings, a photograph is taken of the car, its license tag and the faces of the occupants and this information is stored in the database and cross-referenced with identification checks by the inspection agent right there, or matched with existing records in the database.

I am not rendering an opinion, just passing on some news....although many of you might already know these things were being done or suspected it.

As far as data mining is concerned, you can search my old posts regarding the company called "Seisnt" (which was bought by another data miner). They can mine just about any detail out of literally thousands of diverse databases.