U. to help track threats

The University of Utah is participating in a major research effort to help the Department of Homeland Security track potential threats to the nation.

Critics, however, are raising concerns about free speech.

A new research program, to be developed along with Cornell University and the University of Pittsburgh, will teach computers to scan through text and sort opinion from fact. The three universities will comprise one of four University Affiliate Centers to conduct research that will contribute to national security.

The UACs will produce computational methods that have the potential to help the government detect negative opinions of the United States or its leaders. The program has been made possible by a $2.4 million grant from the DHS. The UACs will identify common patterns from numerous sources of information — such as newspapers and other publications — which may be indicative of potential threats to the country's security.

The researchers are eager to get started. But Dani Eyer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, wonders why the DHS is sponsoring this kind of endeavor.

Eyer recalled an aborted effort in 2002 by the Pentagon to develop a tracking system called Total Information Awareness, intended to detect terrorists by analyzing information.

"In a post-9/11 climate and with ever-increasing technological capabilities, we sometimes get bigger monsters with even bigger chains," Eyer said.

There is also a federal law that prohibits DHS, or other intelligence agencies, from building such databases on American citizens. Researchers contend the programs they are developing will not be used for such things because they will be focusing on information, such as newspapers.

One of the worries the ACLU has, however, is the effect the project could have on someone who wants to write a letter to the editor. People may be more reluctant to do so because they fear becoming a government target.

"It is based on a faulty premise that terrorism can be prevented by collecting as much information as possible," Eyer said. "You don't find a needle in a haystack by bringing in more hay."

Researchers at the U., in the natural language processing (NLP) research group, will conduct research to improve information extraction technology. That will help computers recognize certain types of information, and extract facts and entities related to events.