What did Homeland Security know and when did they know it?

This post from the budget traveler blog shows the details of the writer's "passenger activity" file from Homeland Security.

I have always wondered just what it is that the border agents have on their screen after they swipe my passport. I guess this is it. I have never sent for any sort of secondary questioning (and I travel a lot). The only strange thing that happened is that once I was a asked a long series of questions about whether I had any friends in Italy, as if I somehow might be connected with the mob. That was a few years ago now and has not been repeated.

Oh, and am I the only one who finds the term "homeland security" vaguely totalitarian?