Why metadata matters...

[SlipperySlope]

Courtesy of the EFF

* They know you rang a phone sex service at 2:24 am and spoke for 18 minutes. But they don't know what you talked about.

* They know you called the suicide prevention hotline from the Golden Gate Bridge. But the topic of the call remains a secret.

* They know you spoke with an HIV testing service, then your doctor, then your health insurance company in the same hour. But they don't know what was discussed.

* They know you received a call from the local NRA office while it was having a campaign against gun legislation, and then called your senators and congressional representatives immediately after. But the content of those calls remains safe from government intrusion.

* They know you called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called the local Planned Parenthood's number later that day. But nobody knows what you spoke about.

[backscatter712]

1. K&R! The best way to explain this is to call the NSA "Google for Tyrants". n/t

[bluedeathray]

2. And our Government admits it exists!

And tries to pass it off as a necessity.

WTF will it take for Americans to seize back their nation?

Huge sacrifices were made in the past in the belief of that document.

What are we becoming?

[newfie11]

4. We have become a nation of sheeple

I don't know what it would take to wake people up to what is happening.

To lazy, to involved in their own lives, listening to the play news we are fed or Fox News.

Little by little we are loosing our rights and becoming closer to a police state.

[Sirveri]

8. Don't shake the boat, I'm comfortable right now!

You threaten my comfort, then you threaten me, and that can't be allowed. So I'll call you a nut and ignore you, it's not a problem, it won't affect me because I never do anything! Just let me be a cog in the machine and let me be comfortable!

[newfie11]

9. +1

That's how it goes unfortunately.

[Live and Learn]

3. Exactly. Even if it isn't illegal now, you'd like it kept private. nt

[randome]

5. They don't know crap without a legal warrant to search the data.

Those pesky warrants get in the way of everything these days!

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[Recursion]

6. Well, it will take a Constitutional Amendment or new SCOTUS case to have the 4th apply

As it stands, none of that data is protected by the 4th amendment, and that's been true for over 30 years.

[reusrename]

7. I believe the metadata is used for a different purpose.

I think digging up dirt on people might best be done by just reading their mail and listening to their calls.

The metadata is used to create the targets for a counterinsurgency operation. Sometimes (or according to research, in most cases) the most influential person in a social network or insurgency is not the most high profile or most vocal individual in the group. With very large groups (OWS for example) this new technology identifies those individuals who's participation in the group is the most critical.

That, in a nutshell, is what the metadata is being collected and used for. Because the algorithms being used are easily handled by computers, and because no errors are introduced by trying to decode or translate any communication content, the system can create a very precise mapping of our social networks. Only actual metadata associated with each communication is logged into the software, and from that the algorithms sort out the social connections.

For some basic info about how the science is implemented, google the keywords: thesis+insurgent+social+network