"Data Mining" and "Behavior Detection" duboius science
 

The National Research Council say data mining and behavior detection are not useful in detecting terrorists.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/07/ter...ior/index.html

And TSA agrees!

A TSA spokesman said Tuesday the report "is not any kind of indictment of our program," adding that the TSA's behavior-detection officers do not claim to be adept at finding people with terrorist intent.

Instead, spokesman Christopher White said, the officers look for people exhibiting signs of stress, fear or deception, and focus on those people for further investigation.

Absolutely right, because they haven't found any.

Fixed it for you.

keep wasting my tax dollars tsa
 

then why in god's good name do they even have bdo's? :confused::confused::confused:

Look at the monkey! Chewbacca is a Wookie!

The TSA is just pathetic. More and more experts criticize their expensive actions as worthless and even potentially harmful, yet they manage to continue to defend them somehow, someway. Must be the Chewbacca defense.

Translation: "Science is overrated. We use Skeletor's "gut instinct" instead."

Love the picture with the article, too. I must be getting old; those BDOs look like children. And why are they looking for terrorists at baggage claim - isn't that a bit late?

They're trying to pick out the terrorists who failed so they can't try again in the future. :rolleyes:

The article "states some police departments"? Try several hundreds. This isn't new. Several books have been published on this and most are in agreement that deception cannot be accurately detected, but someone exhibiting high levels of stress is a person of interest. 99% of passengers will probably never have a conversation with a BDO. Interesting article but most scientists cannot agree on what causes the common cold.

Really? It's a virus - or rather several thousand of them. Don't know what scientists you've been talking to on that one - it's been known for quite some time.

Wrong. :rolleyes:

Your statement underscores the TSA's association with junk science. :(

TSA should have just kept its mouth shut. The report is about datamining along the lines of CAPPSII, TIA, etc., not behavior-detection by people.

But if indeed TSA's doesn't think its BDOs are adept at finding people with terrorist intent, then by all means let's get rid of them.

perhaps this topic is best answered by the corporate reps on the board. a lot of them do data mining on this forum.

as for security, there is zero value in this behaviour detection. For airport that want to promote safety, this is a marketing gimmick. If you don't like it, you have to speak to the respective governors with evidence that there is over 50% of voters who do not wish to pay for such a service.

I exhibit high levels of stress every time I go through security. I also exhibit anger, disgust and bewilderment at how my tax dollars are getting spent.

Mike

The only thing the SPOTNiks have done to us is to incredibly dumb-down the definition of "reasonable suspicion" leading to a confrontation/interrogation with a cop. Back in the good old days, a cop had to have explainable reasonable suspicion in order to justify stopping someone (i.e.: Terry Stop). Now, all it takes is for a SPOTNik to say, "He looked nervous."

That's what's terribly wrong. I don't know about anyone else, but I want real police work done by real police within the boundaries of the U.S. and state Constitutions.

Yes - you can't see the wood for the trees.

Data mining works quite well when you are dealing with large numbers of people - so you know to put 6 packs of beer next to nappies as you know that new dads out shopping tend tol put a "little extra" in their trolleys - but trying to use it to find a needle in a haystack is just plain stupid