The FBI uses the raw information contained in the TIDE databank to determine whether to put the subject onto the government's terror watch list, known as the Terrorism Screening Data Base.
About six months before the CIA requested his name be added to Tide, the FBI asked the Russians for more information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev but received none, and closed its investigation.
Even where the historic tide of freedom has been temporarily slowed, as in China, these devices are being used clandestinely to share information and keep the faith.