ADVISE Is Intended to Help Identify Patterns of Interest to Homeland Security Analysts

ADVISE is a data mining tool under development that is intended to  facilitate the analysis of large amounts of data. It is designed to  accommodate both structured data (such as information in a database)  and unstructured data (such as e-mail texts, reports, and news articles)  and to allow an analyst to search for patterns in data, including  relationships among entities (such as people, organizations, and events)  and to produce visual representations of these patterns, referred to as  semantic graphs. The intended  benefit of the ADVISE tool is to help detect activities that threaten the  United States by facilitating the analysis of large amounts of data that  otherwise would be prohibitively difficult to review. DHS is currently in  the process of testing the tool’s effectiveness. 2). DHS Has Not Yet Addressed Key Privacy Risks Associated with Expected Uses of the ADVISE Tool

Use of the ADVISE tool raises a number of privacy concerns. However, it  has not assessed privacy risks. Privacy risks that could apply to ADVISE  include the potential for erroneous association of individuals with crime  or terrorism through data that are not accurate for that purpose, the  misidentification of individuals with similar names, and the use of data  that were collected for other purposes. A PIA would determine the privacy  risks associated with ADVISE and help officials determine what specific  controls are needed to mitigate those risks. Further, if a PIA were conducted and privacy risks  identified, a number of controls exist that could be built into the tool to  mitigate those risks. For example, controls could be implemented to  ensure that personal information is used only for a specified purpose or  compatible purposes, or they could provide the capability to distinguish  among individuals that have similar names (a process known as  disambiguation) to address the risk of misidentification. Because privacy  risks such as these have not been assessed and decisions about mitigating  controls have not been made, DHS faces the likelihood that system  implementations based on the tool may require costly and potentially  duplicative retrofitting at a later date to add the needed controls. However,  DHS has not yet conducted a PIA, despite the fact that the E-Government  Act and related OMB and DHS guidance emphasize the need to assess  privacy risks early in systems development. Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Our objectives were to determine the following:  the planned capabilities, uses, and associated benefits of the Analysis  Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement  (ADVISE) tool and   whether potential privacy issues could arise from using the ADVISE tool to  process personal information and how the Department of Homeland  Security (DHS) has addressed any such issues. We did not conduct work or review implementations of ADVISE  at the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
Why GAO Did This Study

The government's interest in using technology to detect terrorism and other threats has led to increased use of data mining. A technique for extracting useful information from large volumes of data, data mining offers potential benefits but also raises privacy concerns when the data include personal information. GAO was asked to review the development by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of a data mining tool known as ADVISE (Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement). Specifically, GAO was asked to determine (1) the tool's planned capabilities, uses, and associated benefits and (2) whether potential privacy issues could arise from using it to process personal information and how DHS has addressed any such issues. GAO reviewed program documentation and discussed these issues with DHS officials.

What GAO Found

ADVISE is a data mining tool under development intended to help DHS analyze large amounts of information. It is designed to allow an analyst to search for patterns in data--such as relationships among people, organizations, and events--and to produce visual representations of these patterns, referred to as semantic graphs. None of the three planned DHS implementations of ADVISE that GAO reviewed are fully operational. (GAO did not review uses of the tool by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis.) The intended benefit of the ADVISE tool is to help detect threatening activities by facilitating the analysis of large amounts of data. DHS is currently in the process of testing the tool's effectiveness. Use of the ADVISE tool raises a number of privacy concerns. DHS has added security controls to the tool; however, it has not assessed privacy risks. Privacy risks that could apply to ADVISE include the potential for erroneous association of individuals with crime or terrorism and the misidentification of individuals with similar names. A privacy impact assessment would identify specific privacy risks and help officials determine what controls are needed to mitigate those risks. ADVISE has not undergone such an assessment because DHS officials believe it is not needed given that the tool itself does not contain personal data. However, the tool's intended uses include applications involving personal data, and the E-Government Act and related guidance emphasize the need to assess privacy risks early in systems development. Further, if an assessment were conducted and privacy risks identified, a number of controls could be built into the tool to mitigate those risks. For example, controls could be implemented to ensure that personal information is used only for a specified purpose or compatible purposes, and they could provide the capability to distinguish among individuals that have similar names to address the risk of misidentification. Because privacy has not been assessed and mitigating controls have not been implemented, DHS faces the risk that ADVISE-based system implementations containing personal information may require costly and potentially duplicative retrofitting at a later date to add the needed controls.