Anti-Terrorism Program Scrutinizes Donor Lists

The Internal Revenue Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation increasingly mine financial data, including data on charities, to hunt for links to terrorists, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The government has developed software called Reveal to examine information in 16 federal databases, some of which include lists of donors to nonprofit groups.

Indeed, though the government also investigates personal and corporate information with Reveal, an IRS spokeswoman said that Reveal indicates that charitable organizations are responsible for channeling most funds to overseas terrorists.

The software is especially useful, experts in the article said, at establishing links that remain hidden when examining only individual cases.

However, privacy activists were not pleased by the data-mining effort. Though they acknowledged that the information was probably useful for disrupting terrorism, “it’s basically the beginning of comprehensive financial surveillance,” said one.

Read coverage in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about how charities can fight terrorism and about past warnings about terrorism by the Treasury Department.

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