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Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Authors

Lisa Campbell

Keywords

Nanotechnology, Critical Infrastructure Protection

Abstract

In an effort to predict and avert threats to national security, governments in general, and that of the United States in particular, have devoted considerable resources to developing technological systems that gather information about individuals. In the past five years, the U.S. government has collected information about the movement of individuals across and within its national borders from various sources, including border security stations, law enforcement officials, and immigration authorities. Until recently, it seemed impossible for the U.S. government to draw useful analyses from all of the data it is collecting. The sheer volume and complexity of the information made it appear unworkable to perform an analysis in time to act pre-emptively. Now, developments in computing technology suggest that not only will it soon be possible to collect and process vast amounts of data, it will be possible to do so in real time, giving law enforcement officials unprecedented capacities to engage proactively.

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