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AI expands the surveillance tools built after Sept. 11
The post-9/11 surveillance buildup now draws from smartphone data and commercial datasets, and AI is increasingly used to connect databases and produce analyses quickly.
Twenty-five years after Sept. 11, 2001, the surveillance infrastructure created in the attacks’ aftermath has grown into a larger digital ecosystem that can collect and analyze information at a scale far beyond what was possible in 2001, according to Insurance Journal.
The outlet says the post-9/11 changes reshaped how US intelligence and policing architectures operate, expanding government agencies’ ability to collect, share, and analyze information and bringing national security tools deeper into everyday law enforcement through mechanisms such as joint terrorism task forces and fusion centers.
Insurance Journal also notes that the surveillance expansion has been contested, with civil liberties groups warning it could erode privacy and constitutional protections, while many Americans viewed it as a necessary safety tradeoff after the attacks.
Today, the article describes how technologies used by police, including automated license plate readers, networks of cameras, and cellphone location information, can track and map movement, and it adds that artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to sift through large information stores, connect previously separate databases, and generate analyses in seconds.