Think Computers, Not Guns — Likely Terrorists Can Be Profiled and Stopped

Our national-security apparatus could learn from Target department stores.

National Review  . . . "Target, for instance, uses analytics to examine people’s purchasing patterns and guess which coupons they might want. Then they add some coupons they don’t think you’ll want, just so you don’t feel cyber-stalked. Target’s algorithm can, among other things, diagnose a female shopper’s pregnancy and predict her likely due date with startling accuracy. (First comes love, then comes the unscented hand lotion, then comes the Target baby carriage, available now for $149.99.) That’s just from analyzing one person’s purchases at one particular store. 

"If a department-store chain can do that, can the information-rich government really not find terrorists and homicidal maniacs before they snap? " . . .