FOIA: Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE)

In 2007, EFF submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Homeland Security for information about a trial-stage data mining program called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). This system was intended to sift through a wide variety of databases to find suspicious patterns between people and organizations. After the DHS Privacy Office and Inspector General criticized the privacy practices of the program, DHS announced that it had scrapped the $42 million system in favor of commercial software.