Data mining is not an invasion of privacy because access to data is only by machines, not by people: this is the argument that is investigated here. The current importance of this problem is developed in a case study of data mining in the USA for counterterrorism and other surveillance purposes. After a clarification of the relevant nature of privacy, it is argued that access by machines cannot warrant the access to further information, since the analysis will have to be made either by humans or by machines that understand. It concludes that the current data mining violates the right to privacy and should be subject to the standard legal constraints for access to private information by people.

翻译：数据挖掘并非对隐私的侵犯，因为数据访问仅由机器而非人类执行：这是本文所探讨的核心论点。该问题在当前的重要性通过美国为反恐及其他监控目的进行数据挖掘的案例研究得以展开。在澄清隐私相关本质后，本文论证机器访问无法保证对衍生信息的获取，因为数据分析最终必须由人类或具备理解能力的机器完成。研究结论指出，当前的数据挖掘行为侵犯了隐私权，应受到与人类访问私人信息相同的标准法律约束。