While it rarely prevents the FTC from getting the data or sorting out the issues, the process can take longer than the eight months it took the FTC to review and approve this deal.

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Then there is the challenge of collecting and sorting through the data.

WSJ: Citizen Surveillance Helps Officials Put Pieces Together

There were limitations in what could be analyzed, due to the inflexibility of data warehouses and relational databases, but the process for cleansing, sorting and analyzing data was well understood as a complete cycle.

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