‘Fusion centers’ amass personal info

Washington Post obtained a document describing state-run, federally funded intelligence installations known as ‘fusion centers.’ The document itemizes open-source tools these centers use to collect and analyze the data of millions of Americans. We don’t know the full extent of their capabilities since those are still classified.

The list of information resources was part of a survey conducted last year, officials familiar with the effort said. It shows that, like most police agencies, the fusion centers have subscriptions to private information-broker services that keep records about Americans’ locations, financial holdings, associates, relatives, firearms licenses and the like.

Centers serving New York and other states also tap into a Federal Trade Commission database with information about hundreds of thousands of identity-theft reports, the document and police interviews show.

Pennsylvania buys credit reports and uses face-recognition software to examine driver’s license photos, while analysts in Rhode Island have access to car-rental databases. In Maryland, authorities rely on a little-known data broker called Entersect, which claims it maintains 12 billion records about 98 percent of Americans.

…

Some of the centers link to records of currency transactions and almost 5 million suspicious-activity reports filed by financial institutions with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Massachusetts and other states rely on LocatePlus, an information broker that claims that it provides “the most comprehensive cell phone, unlisted and unpublished phone database in the industry.” The state also taps a private system called ClaimSearch that includes a “nationwide database that provides information on insurance claims, including vehicles, casualty claims and property claims,” the document said.

And now for the potent quotable:

“There is never ever enough information when it comes to terrorism” said Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell, deputy superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police. “That’s what post-9/11 is about.”

If want to find a fusion center by you — and there is one nearby unless you live in Idaho — you can check out a map here.

See also:

+ WSJ brings NSA data-mining to page 1
+ FISA: It’s the emails
+ Whistle-blower describes NSA back door to telecom’s cell phone data
+ Senate Set to OK Data Mining, Telecom Immunity