Attack of the IRS Robot Spiders

David Weigel | January 26, 2007

From Wired News comes this report of a technology that monitors the online activity of tax cheats and gathers information to bust them.

A five-nation tax enforcement cartel has been quietly cracking down on suspected internet tax cheats, using a sophisticated web crawling program to monitor transactions on auction sites, and track operators of online shops, poker and porn sites.

The "Xenon" program -- a reference to the super-bright auto headlights that light up dark places -- was started in The Netherlands in 2004 by the Dutch equivalent of the IRS, Belastingdienst. It has since been expanded and enhanced by international group of tax authorities in Austria, Denmark, Britain and Canada, with the assistance of Amsterdam-based data mining firm Sentient Machine Research.

Fortunately, this is the only reason why governments would ever deploy this program. Right?

Also worth reading at Wired: A breakdown of Sen. Hillary Clinton's "privacy Bill of Rights."

Comments

|1.26.07 @ 10:13AM|#

Send in The Phone Spiders!

The Wine Commonsewer|1.26.07 @ 12:37PM|#

Fortunately, this is the only reason why governments would ever deploy this program. Right?

I see where you're going with that bit of snidery but it implies that using technology in this fashion is okay so long as it's just to catch tax cheats. I don't think that's your position but it's worth a mention anyway.

I might add that the Swiss no longer protect anonymity when tax avoidance is in question.

Paul|1.26.07 @ 2:41PM|#

Time for a new TV Drama: IRS Miami, IRS New York... etc..

Sharp, snappily dressed, fast talking IRS agents employing the highest technology to catch the worst criminals of all: Tax Cheats. Warren Beatty can be the Director of the New York office.

|1.26.07 @ 10:12PM|#

An international coalition of tax-collectors using an advanced computer spying program with the help of a company with the terms "Sentient Machine" in its name . . .

This is like pornography for libertarian paranoiacs.

Todd Frye|1.27.07 @ 7:55AM|#

During slow periods it also loops a search for Sarah Connor.