Stealth searches scan personal data

A Congressional report reveals that US government computers continue to sift through a vast array of databases for hints of terrorist activity, despite the closure of a controversial Pentagon programme. Nine months after US Congress shut down a controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance programme, the US government continues to comb private records to sniff out suspicious activity, according to a congressional report obtained by Reuters. Privacy concerns prompted Congress to kill the Pentagon's $54m (£29m) Total Information Awareness programme last September, but government computers are still scanning a vast array of databases for clues about criminal or terrorist activity, the General Accounting Office found.

Overall, 36 of the government's 199 "data mining" efforts collect personal information from the private sector, a move experts say could violate civil liberties if left unchecked.

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