[lbo-talk] Why Metadata Matters

[Eleutherios Rizooto]

Wojtek is dead wrong on this (although he is often insightful), meta-data
is deeply revealing and the government does pernicious things with the
information of the likes I don't see coming from business. It kills people,
many of them innocent and regardless no longer is there due process, and
has always used its surveillance abilities to monitor and quell dissent but
never has it had the ability to monitor the entire population that it has
now --and which it exercised against Occupy. Yet, it's true that businesses
collect vast amounts of sensitive data, Acxiom is a longtime example but
there are ever more (especially in recent years). Much of the data that NSA
(and even its predecessors) has obtained from the beginning has been
procured from the networks of private companies through secret collusion,
all of which was detailed in the Edge/FAZ and NY Review of Books pieces I
originally shared. It's also true that there is anti-government reflex
deeply conditioned in the US, but that doesn't make untrue or excuse
nefarious activity by the government.

Indeed, if one wants the government to have the support to be able to do
good, then it's helpful to not let it discredit itself so bluntly and
pervasively. It makes it harder to argue against libertarian and similar
perspectives, or to get support from the average "non-ideological" lay
person, given so much of what government actually does. Thankfully, it does
appear that some reform is finally on the horizon
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/25/reform-of-nsa-surveillance-is-probably-inevitable/,
but I don't think it'll change the overall trajectory that we're on;
and
given the potential of the technology, deep consideration is necessary (I'm
quite thankful for Snowden et al's disclosures
http://pressthink.org/2013/07/the-snowden-effect-definition-and-examples ).
Those that didn't read the Dyson piece really should do so
http://www.edge.org/conversation/nsa-the-decision-problem .

Major new revelations are out today from Greenwald/Snowden:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-dataIt
divulges that content is indeed collected in concert with meta-data,
as
previous disclosures showed:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/aug/15/nsa-they-know-much-more-you-think/.

None of this is to minimize that Facebook especially as well as Google and
the less visible data collectors shouldn't also be held to account. To
whatever degree possible, that is, it's difficult to control the technology
and it requires attention and discussion which is sorely lacking. I don't
doubt that rat bastard Zuckerberg would hesitate to rat fuck with the
information at his disposal and an underappreciated aspect to CIA Director
Petreaus' downfall was the power available to Google/GMail (fully exploited
or not at this juncture). Yet, that, some targeted ads, some insider
trading and corporate espionage, pales in comparison to what the government
can and demonstrably does with the data it collects directly or via
clandestine partnerships with business that come with the convenient aspect
of requiring far less if any oversight. For those that believe in reform
then this is one area to pursue. For those that believe in government, and
it demonstrably can be accountable to and benefit the people given
favorable circumstances, these issues cannot be ignored.

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:


>
> On Jul 31, 2013, at 3:07 PM, Arthur Maisel wrote:
>
>  Could you clarify who you're trying to insult, Andie or Woj?
>>
>
> Neither.  Just that it was Andie who, by condescending to point to the
> obvious,  was (deservedly) insulting Woj.
>
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