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from Consortium News:
NSAs Preference for Metadata
January 13, 2014
Exclusive: The hidden ball in the debate over the NSAs collection of phone and e-mail metadata (vs. tapping into actual conversations with a court order) is that the NSA actually prefers the metadata approach because it strips away privacy more efficiently, says ex-NSA analyst Kirk Wiebe.
By Kirk Wiebe
Senior national security officials, from President Barack Obama on down, have made light of the National Security Agencys intrusive monitoring of the public by saying only metadata about communications, not the content of those communications, are collected. One might ask, then, why is it that intelligence and law enforcement officials much prefer this metadata approach?
For one, analysts can determine a great deal about a person any person by following the electronic crumbs that people inevitably leave behind in the course of their daily routines. And this data-byte-crunching analysis is much less time-consuming than monitoring each phone call or reading each e-mail.
So, the distinction between listening in on conversations and just collecting phone numbers called and the duration of the conversations is a red herring. The truth is that persistent, bulk collection of metadata in support of analysis is not can be more revealing over time than content, the latter prohibited from collection unless probable cause criteria have been met in the eyes of a court.
Metadata collection can answer all but one of the five Ws of journalism: the Who, What, Where and When. Given time, it can even respond to Why someone interfaces with digital information systems the way they do. It can do this because it is possible to discern patterns of behavior in metadata. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2014/01/13/nsas-preference-for-metadata/
randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]
cprise
(8,445 posts)In any case, four levels of bureaucrats do not an exception to the Constitution make.
randome
(34,845 posts)Third-party business records and all that.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)They are targeting Americans and fabricating evidence trails. They are targeting political enemies for surveillance. They are engaging in corporate espionage. They are engaging in sexual blackmail. They have created a mass surveillance machine in the United States of America, targeted at citizens, for the purpose of increasing their power and preventing resistance by those being exploited for profit. They sustain this machine through secret laws, secret courts, and politicians purchased with corporate money. The President of the United States has proclaimed that this surveillance machine cannot be challenged in the courts. A principled former President has warned that America "no longer has a functioning democracy."
This is the definition of a nation turning to fascism, the merging of corporatism and the authoritarian state.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.