The Office of the Director of National Intelligence continues not to engage in any data mining, says the ODNI in an annual report to Congress posted online May 10 by the Federation of American Scientists. The report covers activities undertaken from January through December 2010.

The intelligence community does, the report allows, utilize tools meant to analyze data that discover previously unknown patterns, but usage of the tools don't fit the definition of data mining as defined by the Data Mining Report Act.

The act specifies that for data mining to have occurred, queries must have been subject-based and lacking in personal identifiers or inputs associated with a specific individual or group.

For example, a tool under developed called DataSphere will use network analysis to discover relationships between known and suspected terrorists and their associates. But queries and searches in DataSphere "begin with known identifiers...based upon threat-based reports," the report states.

The report also says the ODNI chief information officer manages a program called Catalyst, meant to systematically derive entity information from big data collections, provide a means of correlating entity data from disparate data sources, and allow enterprisewide search. "Pattern-matching functionality is contemplated for a later phase of development, currently scheduled to begin in 2013," the report states.

For more:
- download the annual report from the FAS website (.pdf)

Related Articles:
No data mining here, says ODNI 
ISOO report says federal agencies are impediments to classification system reform 
DISA to open Forge.mil to intelligence community