Bruce wrote another spot-on post on the idiocy of secret US data mining programs and the fallability of travel info databases. The worst part about these programs is that they are apparently promoted, through any means necessary, by people who do not understand how very little integrity their information will have.

So in that vein, which is worse, an individual making robbery charges against the infant of a man s/he has a grudge against, or a country putting a toddler on their no-fly list and issuing an arrest warrant?

Compare, contrast:

3-month old baby charged with robbery

The baby had been charged with robbery, extortion and banditry, said local superintendent of police Rattan Sajai.

Though the robbery in the remote village of Muzzafarpur occurred Sept. 19, the fact that a prime suspect was an infant only came to light recently when police launched their investigation, Sanjai said.

Toddler gets travel ban, arrest warrant: paper

“While going through the passport checking procedures to get on board, one of the officers on duty said they wanted to take Suhail,” Emirates Today quoted the boy’s father, Abdullah Mohamed Saleh, as saying.

“I thought he was kidding me and said ‘Take him if you want’,” he said. “He showed me a print-out of a document that said Suhail was wanted and there was an arrest warrant for him.”

Now let’s say you are in charge of writing the queries for the mining tools. How would you prevent these errors from happening?

Is such a question even relevant if no one will face accountability for data integrity?

Welcome to The Trial, children…