UK Spy Computer Does Less, Costs More... But At Least It Does Something
from the small-victories dept
Remember that wonderful new $400 million FBI computer system that couldn't fight terrorists, but could track down fictional video game characters? Well, it appears that American spooks aren't alone in their ability to completely waste money on useless computer systems. MI5 in the UK is now admitting that their brand new computer system will cost much more and do much less than originally promised. Of course, to their credit, at least the damn thing works, unlike the US system, which has been scrapped entirely.
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The system that never existed
A: None, because the light bulb never existed.
Q: How many effective computer systems will the government admit to possessing, the ones that can keep track of citizens down to their fingerprints, DNA haplotypes, and personal habits?
A: None, because irrational civilians would complain about "invasions of privacy".
The CIA, FBI, etc. have many success stories that are not divulged to the public.
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Re: The system that never existed
Talking about DNA, there's always the UK police database (New Scientist article) taken from police suspects that has 32% of all black UK males on file, and 8% of white UK males. Additionally, 98% of the database profiles are from males. Nice.
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