Pressure to prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack has led to a proliferation of data mining projects. A 2004 report by the General Accountability Office (GAO) reported that federal agencies were engaged in or planning almost 200 data mining projects. It comes as no surprise that agency heads have been approving data mining projects almost as fast as they are conceived because few people want to be on the opposing side if a terrorist plot could have been foiled. However, several media outlets have reported top secret programs that collect and look for patterns in phone records, emails, and other personal information. Although many government officials and politicians defend this as being critical to the war on terror, a growing number of people have expressed concerns for ensuring privacy.