We should not use statistical inference because statistics do not always paint an accurate picture.<p>An extreme example is that many criminals enjoy ice cream; obviously, it&#x27;s a fallacy to say that all ice cream eaters are therefore criminals. But what about correlations between crime and race, sexual preference, location? If my neighbor is a terrorist, am I his accomplice? Is everyone who lives in a bad neighborhood a crook, or are some of them trying to scrape by legally?<p>It seems like this argument appears on every single thread about surveillance. Data does not lie, therefore we cannot lose if we use data to solve crimes. The problem, friend, is that data does not lie--humans do. We lie to ourselves all the time, because the patterns fit and we are creatures that survive by pattern recognition.  We see patterns even where they aren&#x27;t patterns.