You thought the NSA silliness was bad?

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You know what else works great as a predictive tool? Profiling.

If you have an identifiable cultural or ethnic group with a 10% crime rate versus say an average of 5% for the population as a whole, and you focus on them you'll definitely have a better hit rate for crime. Absolutely! I've seen guys I work with do it. Hell I've caught myself doing it sometimes. It's such an easy trap to fall into. It's seductive - the numbers don't lie, right?

But funny enough, people get upset about that and we don't allow the police to do it.
 
I'd hate to lose an internet arguement....actooly I don't care. I read (not fine tooth comb) the piece, I thought I understood it. I'm not seeing it as profiling as I understand profiling. It's using intel and advising "at risk people". I'm going to read it more carefully later.
 
Naw, the article doesn't mention profiling specifically. I'm just pointing out that you could make very similar "pro" arguments for both profiling (or stop-and-frisk, or other similar programs that have been getting people riled up) and this computer system. It is very very much the same kind of thinking.
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